Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by William Batchelder Greene

Quote by William Batchelder Greene

“The Federal Government is rendered weak to do wrong, and powerful to do right: for, as soon as it begins to go wrong, it naturally begins to be divided against itself, and the three great wheels of its machinery exhaust their momentum, or wear each other out, in their friction against each other; while, as soon as it begins to go right, all the parts work harmoniously, and exhaust their full strength on the object of their action.”

Quote by William Batchelder Greene

Create image

Author

William Batchelder Greene
William Batchelder Greene

William Batchelder Greene (April 4, 1819 - May 30, 1878) was an American social reformer and writer. His life and work spanned multiple fields, including labor reform, prison reform, anarchism, and socialism. Greene was an advocate for social justice and equality during his lifetime and had a profound impact on future generations. more

You May Also Like

“Some men -- not all men -- see always before them an ideal, a mental picture if you will, of what they ought to be, and are not. Whoso seeks to follow this ideal revealed to the mental vision, whoso seeks to attain to conformity with it, will find it enlarge itself, and remove from him. He that follows it will improve his own moral character, but the ideal will remain always above him and before him, prompting him to new exertions.”

IfsMenCharacterMoralVisionHe ManOughtIdealsRemoveConformityIdealismExertionMoral Character
Book:The blazing star; with an appendix treating of the Jewish Kabbala, also a tract on the philosophy of H. Spencer, and one on New-England transcendentalism
Create image

“Marriage may be polygamic, monogamic, polyandric, complex according to the Oneida pattern, or other, and is true marriage (I do not say perfect marriage) so long as it promotes the happiness of the persons married, and the procreation, support, and education of children, and so long as it is founded on the joint free contract of the persons married, and remains under the sanction of the organic society of which those persons are members.”

MayChildrenPersonsLongPerfectMarriageSupportMembersMarriedRemainsComplexesPatternsContractsJointsSanctionsProcreationPerfect Marriage
Author:William Batchelder Greene
Create image

“Thou Moon! Sun of the Night, Sister mystic of the Day; Look down, pause in thy flight! Calm me with thy aural ray, Enchanting souls to silver sleep. Look down from out thy airy keep, My fevered senses hypnotize; Shut out the World, whereto Mind flies-- Ambitious Mind, with travail sore; Its fibre rest, its calm restore.”

WorldMindLooksSoulNightSleepSunMoonCalmSensesFlightSilverRaysAmbitiousPausesMysticAiryEnchanting
Book:Cloudrifts at Twilight
Create image

“Reviving Spring, a toast to thy fresh lips! Thy blush is music, and e'en heaven lurks In thy thick perfumed hair that hangs about Thy flowered shoulders like enchanted rain; Thy sigh is song and thy soft breath a balm, Dispelling death -- soft loosing his cold grip, Unravelling darkness in the heart of pain, As o'er dank waters rings the laugh of dawn.”

HeartPainSongHeavenWaterDarknessLaughingHairColdSpringRainBreathsLipsRingsShouldersDawnThickSighToastsEnchantedDankDispelling
Book:Cloudrifts at Twilight
Create image

“What is it to be rich? It is to have an assured income in excess of expenditures, and to have no occasion for anxiety for the morrow. It is to be above the necessity of living from hand to mouth. It is to be able (or to have grounds to insanely suppose one's self to be able) to live outside of God's providence.”

SelfHandsAbleWealthRichAnxietyMouthsIncomeOccasionsExcessProvidenceAssuredMorrowExpenditures
Book:A Letter to the Rev. Henry W. Foote, Minister of King's Chapel, in Vindication of the Poorer Class of the Boston Working-women
Create image

“Without doubt, matter is unlimited in extent, and, in this sense, infinite; and the forces of Nature mould it into an innumerable number of worlds. Would it be at all astonishing if, from the universal dice-box, out of an innumberable number of throws, there should be thrown out one world infinitely perfect? Nay, does not the calculus of probabilities prove to us that one such world out of an infinite number, must be produced of necessity?”

IfsWorldShouldDoeMatterForcePerfectNumbersDoubtProveUniversalInfiniteBoxesThrownUnlimitedProbabilityAstonishingDiceCalculusMouldForces Of Nature
Author:William Batchelder Greene
Create image