On the record
In the constitution of human nature, the desire of bettering one’s condition is the mainspring of effort.
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gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Mann highlights the innate human desire to improve one's circumstances as a driving force.
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And yet, infinitely flagrant as the anomaly is, the slave is amenable to the laws of the land for all offences which he may commit against others, though he is powerless to protect himself by the same law from offences which others may…
The general system of slaveholding farmers and planters, in all times and places, has been, and now is, and ever will be, to cultivate much land, badly, for present gain,--in short, to kill the goose that lays the golden egg.
They cannot do otherwise with laborers who work by compulsion, for the benefit only of their masters, and whose sole interest in the matter is to do as little and to consume as much as possible.
Not the most fertile soil, not mines of silver and gold, can make a nation rich, without intelligence.
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