Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“A nation's greatness is not dependent upon the things it makes and uses. Things without thots are mere vulgarities.”
- Date
- 1902
- Local voice
- Authorial / signed preface voice · Anna Julia Cooper
Meaning of “A nation's greatness is not dependent upon the…”
Cooper rejects material production and display as sufficient measures of a nation, shifting the standard of greatness toward moral and intellectual life.
Where does it come from?
The Ethics of the Negro Question, delivered at the Friends’ General Conference in Asbury Park on September 5, 1902. Howard University preserves the primary address, and a public transcription reproduces the opening wording. Cooper’s spelling “thots” is retained from the represented transcription. This is historical civic and ethical argument, not a modern national-ranking metric.
Why the local voice matters
The Ethics of the Negro Question, 1902. Cooper contrasts material display with moral and intellectual measures of national greatness; this is historical civic/ethical argument.