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The Daily Dish - 2006-2011 archives for The Daily Dish, featuring Andrew Sullivan

Quote For The Day

By The Daily Dish
Nov 16 2008, 1:12 AM ET

Agabuse

"There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them; who, esteeming themselves children of Washington and Franklin, sit down with their hands in their pockets, and say that they know not what to do, and do nothing; who even postpone the question of freedom to the question of free trade, and quietly read the prices-current along with the latest advices from Mexico, after dinner, and, it may be, fall asleep over them both. 

What is the price-current of an honest man and patriot today?  They hesitate, and they regret, and sometimes they petition; but they do nothing in earnest and with effect.  They will wait, well disposed, for others to remedy the evil, that they may no longer have it to regret.  At most, they give only a cheap vote, and a feeble countenance and Godspeed, to the right, as it goes past them.  There are nine hundred and ninety-nine patrons of virtue to one virtuous man.  But it is easier to deal with the real possessor of a thing than with the temporary guardian of it," - Henry David Thoreau.



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