Skip to content
quotesby

Were the talents and virtues which heaven has bestowed on men given merely to make them more obedient drudges, to be sacrificed to the follies and ambition of a few? Or, were not the noble gifts so equally dispensed with a divine purpose and law, that they should as nearly as possible be equally exerted, and the blessings of Providence be equally enjoyed by all?

Samuel Adams#16

FreedomEqualityPurposeTalent

About this quote

What does it mean?
The author questions if human talents were meant for servitude, arguing they were distributed equally for everyone to use and enjoy equally.
In plain terms
Talents and virtues are given to all for equal use and enjoyment, not for obedience.
What can you take from it?
Talents are for equal enjoyment.

Where it applies

  • social critique
  • human rights

Putting it to work

  • advocate equal opportunity
  • critique class structures

Questions to consider

  • What is the purpose of human talent?
  • How should we distribute opportunity?

Another view

It assumes all people have equal access to these natural gifts.

More from Samuel Adams

  1. He who made all men hath made the truths necessary to human happiness obvious to all. Our forefathers threw off the yoke of Popery in religion; for you is rese…

    Permalink to quote #15
  2. Men who content themselves with the semblance of truth, and a display of words, talk much of our obligations to Great Britain for protection. Had she a single …

    Permalink to quote #17
  3. We cannot make Events. Our Business is wisely to improve them. There has been much to do to confirm doubting Friends & fortify the Timid. It requires time to b…

    Permalink to quote #14

Related quotes

  1. That state is a state of Slavery in which a man does what he likes to do in his spare time and in his working time that which is required of him. This state ca…

    Eric GillEric Gill quote #1
  2. I may say this is a deluded generation, veiled with ignorance, that tho popery and slavery be riding in upon them, do not perceive it; tho I am sure there was …

    Richard RumboldRichard Rumbold quote #1
  3. [Apartheid in South Africa] appears to be a clear and even extreme instance of that discrimination between different individuals which seems to me to be incomp…

    Friedrich HayekFriedrich Hayek quote #2