"The color of the prisoner’s skin, and the form of his features, are not impressed upon the spiritual immortal mind which works beneath. In spite of human pride, he is still your brother, and mine, in form and color accepted and approved by his Father, and yours, and mine, and bears equally with us the proudest inheritance of our race — the image of our Maker. Hold him then to be a Man."

William H. Seward Politics See all quotes by William H. Seward →

React to this quote

More by William H. Seward

“William Henry Seward, the Virginia controversy, and the anti-slavery movement, 1839-1841.”

“The government of the United States, under the conduct of the Democratic Party, has been all that time surrendering one plain and castle after another to slavery.”

“Remember always that the cause of the United States is the cause of human nature.”

“There is no social life outside of Christendom.”

“The history of the Democratic Party commits it to the policy of slavery. It has been the Democratic Party, and no other agency, which has carried that policy up to its present alarming culmination.”

“Whatever policy we adopt, there must be an energetic prosecution of it. For this purpose it must be somebody's business to pursue and direct it incessantly.”

Resonant Thoughts

"No nation can prosper unless the men and women of whom it is composed apply to their own behaviour the same high standards of social morality as they demand of the officers of their government; for it…"

— Muhammad Asad

Politics1900–1992

#family

"Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal's deed, however calculated, can be compared. For there to be an equivalency, the death penalty would have to punish a crimi…"

— Albert Camus

Literature1913–1960

#life

"What would we really know the meaning of? The meal in the firkin; the milk in the pan; the ballad in the street; the news of the boat; the glance of the eye; the form and the gait of the body; — show …"

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Literature1803–1882

#philosophy

"With the ever-growing impact of science on our lives, religion and spirituality have a greater role to play by reminding us of our humanity. There is no contradiction between the two. Each gives us va…"

— 14th Dalai Lama

Religion1935

#wisdom