Skip to content
quotesby

I am not a giant physically; I shrink from pain and filth and vermin and foul air, like any other man of refinement; also, I freely admit, when I see a line of a hundred policeman with drawn revolvers flung across a street to keep anyone from coming on to private property to hear my feeble voice. But I have a conscience and a religious faith, and I know that our liberties were not won without suffering, and may be lost again through our cowardice.

Upton Sinclair#8

PoliticsFreedomActivismConscienceCourageEthicsFear

About this quote

What does it mean?
Sinclair admits fear of physical pain and oppression but emphasizes conscience and faith as reasons to stand for liberty despite risks.
In plain terms
He admits he fears pain and police but believes conscience and past sacrifices demand he keep speaking out.
What can you take from it?
Courage comes from conviction even when fear is present.

Where it applies

  • protest
  • personal ethics
  • leadership

Putting it to work

  • speak out despite risk
  • value conscience over comfort

Questions to consider

  • What drives you to act when afraid?
  • How do you weigh safety against principles?

Another view

Religious faith is cited as a universal motivator which may not apply to all activists.

More from Upton Sinclair

  1. All art is propaganda. It is universally and inescapably propaganda; sometimes unconsciously, but often deliberately, propaganda.

    Permalink to quote #7
  2. I wrote with tears and anguish, pouring into the pages all that pain which life had meant to me. Externally the story had to do with a family of stockyard work…

    Permalink to quote #9
  3. I am a person who has never used violence himself. My present opinion is that people who have obtained the ballot should use it and solve their problems in tha…

    Permalink to quote #6

Related quotes

  1. Le silence est la plus grande persecution; jamais les saints ne se sont tus. (919)

    Blaise PascalBlaise Pascal quote #45
  2. A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the State with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for …

    Henry David ThoreauHenry David Thoreau quote #66
  3. Do not resist the evil-doer and take no part in doing so, either in the violent deeds of the administration, in the law courts, the collection of taxes, or abo…

    Leo TolstoyLeo Tolstoy quote #94