Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Elihu Burritt (American Pacifist)

Elihu Burritt (1810–79,) known as the Learned Blacksmith, was an American diplomat, philanthropist, linguist, pacifist, and social activist. A prolific lecturer, journalist, and writer, he traveled widely in the U.S. and Europe.

Born in New Britain, Connecticut, Burritt worked as a blacksmith in his native town and Worcester, Massachusetts, but devoted all his leisure to mathematics and languages. Massachusetts Governor Edward Everett introduced Burritt at a gathering of a teachers’ institute and called him the “Learned Blacksmith.”

Through his published works and his travels in the America and Europe, Burritt was celebrated for such humanitarian causes. He advocated the abolition of slavery, the dignity of the American worker, and the cause of world peace.

Burritt founded the Christian Citizen, a weekly paper in Worcester in 1844. He was President Abraham Lincoln’s consul in Birmingham, England, 1865–70.

Burritt published at least 37 books and articles, including Sparks from the Anvil (1846,) Walks in the Black Country (1868,) and Ten Minute Talks (1874.)

The Central Connecticut State University in New Britain named its library Elihu Burritt Library in his honor.

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Elihu Burritt

All that I have accomplished, or expect or hope to accomplish, has been, and will be by that plodding, patient, persevering process of accretion which builds the ant-heap particle by particle, thought by thought, fact by fact. If I was ever actuated by ambition its highest and warmest aspiration reached no further than the hope to set before the young men of any country an example in employing those invaluable fragments of time called odd moments.
Elihu Burritt
Topics: Patience, One Step at a Time

Be ever gentle with the children God has given you.—Watch over them constantly; reprove them earnestly, but not in anger.—In the forcible language of Scripture, “Be not bitter against tnem.”—“Yes—they are good boys,” said a kind father. “I talk to them much, but I do not beat my children: the world will beat them.”—It was a beautiful thought, though not elegantly expressed.
Elihu Burritt
Topics: Children

Forming characters! Whose? Our own, or others? Both. And in that momentous fact lies the peril and responsibility of our existence. Who is sufficient for the thought?
Elihu Burritt
Topics: Influence

Among the instrumentalities of love and peace, surely there can be no sweeter, softer, more effective voice than that of gentle peace-breathing music.
Elihu Burritt
Topics: Music

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