Just as it is true that a stream cannot rise above its source, so it … — James Connolly

Just as it is true that a stream cannot rise above its source, so it is true that a national literature cannot rise above the moral level of the social conditions of the people from whom it derives its inspiration.

James ConnollyPolitician · Scottish · 1868 – 1916

More from James Connolly

Books have become our dearest companions, yielding exquisite delights and inspiring lofty aims. — George Henry Lewes
One must be an inventor to read well. There is then creative reading as well as creative writing. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Each age, it is found, must write its own books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
The worker is the slave of capitalist society, the female worker is the slave of that slave. — James Connolly
Without the power of the Industrial Union behind it, Democracy can only enter the State as the victim enters the gullet of the Serpent. — James Connolly
If you strike at, imprison, or kill us, out of our prisons or graves we will still evoke a spirit that will thwart you, and perhaps, raise a force that will destroy you! We defy you! Do your worst! — James Connolly