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That men should pray and fight for their own freedom, and yet keep others in slavery, is certainly acting a very inconsistent, as well as unjust and, perhaps, impious part, but the history of mankind is filled with instances of human improprieties.

— John Jay Letter to Reverend Doctor Price (1785)

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Slavery

More quotes by John Jay

Slaves, though held by the laws of men, are free by the laws of God.

Every man of every color and description has a natural right to freedom.

No power on earth has a right to take our property from us without our consent.

Real Christians will abstain from violating the rights of others, and therefore will not provoke war.

Letter to John Murray (1816)

It certainly is very desirable that a pacific disposition should prevail among all nations.

Letter to John Murray (1816)

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We spend our lives fighting to get people very slightly more stupid than ourselves to accept truths that the great men have always known.

Doris Lessing The Golden Notebook (1962)

What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence?

Abraham Lincoln

The worker is the slave of capitalist society, the female worker is the slave of that slave.

James Connolly

The Autocrat of all the Russias will resign his crown, and proclaim his subjects free republicans sooner than will our American masters voluntarily give up their slaves.

Abraham Lincoln

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Jay (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.