# Chain

A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension.

## Quotes

* Let tyrants shake their iron rod, and slavery clank her galling chains. We fear them not, we trust in God.
** William Billings, "Chester" (1770), The New England Psalm Singer.
* No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.
** Frederick Douglass, Speech at Civil Rights Mass Meeting, Washington, D.C. (22 October 1883).
* I am free! I have burst through my heavy chain, The life of young eagles is mine again!
** Felicia Hemans, The Broken Chain , The Keepsake, 1829 (1828).
* Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God!
** Atributed to Patrick Henry from a speech he made to the Second Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775. The speech was not published until The Port Folio printed a version of it in 1816. The version of the speech that is known today first appeared in print in Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry, a biography of Henry by William Wirt in 1817. There is debate among historians as to whether and to what extent Henry or Wirt should be credited with authorship of the speech and its famous closing words.
* At times we see and struggle with our chain, And dream that somewhat we are freed, in vain; The mighty fetters close on us again.
** Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Necessity, from Three Extracts from the Diary of a Week, The New Monthly Magazine, 1837.
* 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, in "Stanzas on Freedom" (1843)
* True freedom is to share All the chains our brothers wear.
** James Russell Lowell, in "Stanzas on Freedom" (1843)
* Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you are preparing your own limbs to wear them.
** Abraham Lincoln's speech at Edwardsville, Illinois (11 September 1858); quoted in Lincoln, Abraham; Mario Matthew Cuomo, Harold Holzer, G. S. Boritt, Lincoln on Democracy (Fordham University Press, September 1, 2004), 128. ISBN 978-0823223459.
* [T]o be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.
** Nelson Mandela, in Long Walk to Freedom (1995), p. 404.
* Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains.
** Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848) Text online at the Marxists Internet Archive.
* Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.
** Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, Book I, Chapter 1
* Slaves lose everything in their chains, even the desire of escaping from them.
** Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, (1762), I, Ch. 2.
* I must cease the casting of my own chains. I must cease the binding of my body. I must break the chains that bind me. I must also create a new self, a new reality, a new sense of justice, a new fate.
** Ōsugi Sakae, The Chain Factory. Originally published in Kindai Shisō (Modern Thought), vol. 1, no. 12 (Sept. 1913): 2-5. Translated by Adam Goodwin.
* Arguments don't break chains.
** Ōsugi Sakae, The Chain Factory. Originally published in Kindai Shisō (Modern Thought), vol. 1, no. 12 (Sept. 1913): 2-5. Translated by Adam Goodwin.
* Der Mensch ist frei geschaffen, ist frei Und würd' er in Ketten geboren.
** Man is created free, and is free, even though born in chains.
** Friedrich Schiller, Die Worte des Glaubens, Stanza 2
* The dog has been taught to pay attention; as long as he pays attention, he may escape his chain.
** Sumerian proverb, Collection V at The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, 3rd millennium BCE.

## External links

* Encyclopedic article on Chain on Wikipedia
* Media related to Chains on Wikimedia Commons
* The dictionary definition of chain on Wiktionary
* "Chain" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 5 (11th ed.). 1911.
* Authority control: WorldCat search