CURTIS, George William

CitationContextSource LinkCitation “Politicians whose hopes rest upon the popular ignorance and prejudice, and not upon the popular intelligence, furiously sneer at the idea of equality. It is important, therefore, that every man should understand what human equality is. It is an elemental lesson, but the attack is made at the very foundation and must be met there.” ~George William Curtis, American author & orator “The American Doctrine of Liberty,” Address to the Harvard Phi Beta Kappa Society (17 July 1863) Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; in Orations and Addresses of George William Curtis, Vol. I, ed. Charles Eliot Norton, New York: Harper & Bros., 1894, p. 105; online via Stanford University