"There can be no fanatics in the cause of genuine liberty. Fanaticism is excessive zeal. There may be, and have been fanatics in false religion; in the bloody religions of the heathen. There are fanatics in superstition. But there can be no fanatic, however warm their zeal, in the true religion, even although you sell your goods and bestow your money on the poor, and go on and follow your Master. There may, and every hour shows around me, fanatics in the cause of false liberty – that infamous liberty which justifies human bondage, that liberty whose 'corner-stone is slavery'. But there can be no fanaticism however high the enthusiasm, in the cause of rational, universal liberty – the liberty of the Declaration of Independence."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Thaddeus Stevens, "The California Question" (10 June 1850), as quoted in The Selected Works of Thaddeus Stevens
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Slavery
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Slavery
331 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Slavery →
Related Quotes
"Corrupted freemen are the worst of slaves."
"Servi peregrini, ut primum Galliæ fines penetraverint eodem momento liberi sunt."
"If my present theme were the institution of slavery in general, I should endeavour to show that it has been a mighty …"
"Let us see delineated before us the true map of man. Let us hear the dignity of his nature, and the noble rank he hol…"
"Every measure of prudence, therefore, ought to be assumed for the eventual total extirpation of slavery."
"I Shall not pause to consider whether my Opinion will be popular or unpopular with the Slave Holders, or Slave Trader…"
"The first steps of the slaveholder to justify by argument the peculiar institutions is to deny the self-evident truth…"
"Slavery must have differed in details in one country from that in another, but after all, it was shameful in Brazil, …"
"I did more for the Russian serf in giving him land as well as personal liberty, than America did for the negro slave …"
"Fit in dominatu servitus, in servitute dominatus."