At present, man applies to nature but half his force. He works on the world with his understanding alone. He lives in it, and masters it by a penny-wisdom; and he that works most in it, is but a half-man, and whilst his arms are strong and his digestion good, his mind is imbruted, and he is a selfish savage.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
Even American women are not felt to be persons in the same sense as the male immigrants among the Hungarians, Poles, Russian Jews,—not to speak of Italians, Germans, and the masters of all of us—the Irish!
—Mary Putnam Jacobi (1842–1906)
What are we? Well, if you are asking me a question, I will answer you. Here it is: we are this country and it is nothing without us, nothing at all.... And in spite of all this, we are poor, it is true; we are indigent, that’s true; we are miserable, that’s true too. But, brother, do you know why? Because of our ignorance: we do not yet know that we are a force, a unified force—all of us, the peasants, the Negroes of the plains and of the mountains put together. One day, we will have understood this fact, and we will rise from one end of the country to another, and we will form the general assembly of the masters of the dew, the great coumbite of the workers of the earth to clear away misery and plant a new life.
—Jacques Roumain (1907–1945)