Skip to content
Shawords

Quote#Freedom

If there breathe on earth a slave

Quote byJames Russell Lowell · 1819–1891

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: "Stanzas on Freedom" (1843), St. 1.

English (original)

If there breathe on earth a slave, Are ye truly free and brave? If ye do not feel the chain, When it works a brother's pain, Are ye not base slaves indeed, Slaves unworthy to be freed?

— James Russell Lowell

More from James Russell Lowell