We must spread that sympathy and intelligence which tolerates the widest individual freedom despite the necessary public control; we must learn to select for public office ability rather than mere affability.
W.E.B. Du Bois: “We must spread that sympathy and intelligence which tolerates the widest individual freedom despite the necessary public…”
Editor's note · Context
Du Bois advocates for a balance between individual freedom and necessary public control in governance.
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Let the ears of a guilty people tingle with truth, and seventy millions sigh for the righteousness which exalteth nations, in this drear day when human brotherhood is mockery and a snare.
So wofully unorganized is sociological knowledge that the meaning of progress, the meaning of “swift” and “slow” in human doing, and the limits of human perfectability, are veiled, unanswered sphinxes on the shores of science.
Such an assumption is the arrogance of peoples irreverent toward Time and ignorant of the deeds of men.
Our song, our toil, our cheer, and warning have been given to this nation in blood-brotherhood.