We are but weak and wayward men, Distraught alike with hatred and vainglory; Prone to despise the Soul that breathes within-- High visioned hordes that lie and steal and kill, Sinning the sin each separate heart disclaims, Clambering upon our riven, writhing selves, Besieging Heaven by trampling men to Hell!
W.E.B. Du Bois: “We are but weak and wayward men, Distraught alike with hatred and vainglory; Prone to despise the Soul that breathes…”
Editor's note · Context
This passage expresses the internal struggles of humanity, highlighting themes of sin, conflict, and the moral dilemmas faced by individuals.
Share
More from W.E.B. Du Bois
The form and disposition of the laborers’ cabins throughout the Black Belt is to-day the same as in slavery days.
The ballot, which before he had looked upon as a visible sign of freedom, he now regarded as the chief means of gaining and perfecting the liberty with which war had partially endowed him.
I had thereafter no desire to tear down that veil, to creep through; I held all beyond it in common contempt, and lived above it in a region of blue sky and great wandering shadows.
Whatever of good may have come in these years of change, the shadow of a deep disappointment rests upon the Negro people,—a disappointment all the more bitter because the unattained ideal was unbounded save by the simple ignorance of a…