#slavery

In accepting and defending the social institution of slavery, the Greeks were harder-hearted than we but clearer-headed; they knew that labor as such is slavery, and that no man can feel a personal pride in being a laborer. A man can be proud of being a worker – someone, that is, who fabricates enduring objects, but in our society, the process of fabrication has been so rationalized in the interests of speed, economy and quantity that the part played by the individual factory employee has become too small for it to be meaningful to him as work, and practically all workers have been reduced to laborers. It is only natural, therefore, that the arts which cannot be rationalized in this way – the artist still remains personally responsible for what he makes – should fascinate those who, because they have no marked talent, are afraid, with good reason, that all they have to look forward to is a lifetime of meaningless labor. This fascination is not due to the nature of art itself, but to the way in which an artists works; he, and in our age, almost nobody else, is his own master. The idea of being one’s own master appeals to most human beings, and this is apt to lead to the fantastic hope that the capacity for artistic creation is universal, something nearly all human beings, by virtue, not by some special talent, but due to their humanity, could do if they tried. ↗

— W.H. Auden

#greeks #labor #slavery #work #age

I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. ↗

— Abraham Lincoln

#nature

I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; — but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD. ↗

— William Lloyd Garrison

#free-speech #protest #slavery #justice

Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others. ↗

— Booker T. Washington

#compassion #happiness #helping-others #service #slavery

There was a time when you were not a slave, remember that. You walked alone, full of laughter, you bathed bare-bellied. You say you have lost all recollection of it, remember . . . You say there are no words to describe this time, you say it does not exist. But remember. Make an effort to remember. Or, failing that, invent. ↗

— Monique Wittig

#identity #slavery #slavery

But there’s no such thing as free. There are only different and more horrible ways to be enslaved. ↗

— Lauren DeStefano

#slavery #slavery

I am also very proud to be a liberal. Why is that so terrible these days? The liberals were liberatorsthey fought slavery, fought for women to have the right to vote, fought against Hitler, Stalin, fought to end segregation, fought to end apartheid. Liberals put an end to child labor and they gave us the five day work week! What's to be ashamed of? ↗

— Barbra Streisand

#slavery

The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary. ↗

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

#carbohydrates #diabesity #dr-hyman #dr-robert-lustig #labor

One day the absurdity of the almost universal human belief in the slavery of other animals will be palpable. We shall then have discovered our souls and become worthier of sharing this planet with them. ↗

— Martin Luther King Jr.

#martin-luther-king-jr #slavery

It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercise of those privileges. ↗

— Booker T. Washington

#slavery #slavery