noble savage

noun

noble savage

Someone who belongs to an “uncivilized” group or tribe and is considered to be, consequently, more worthy than people who live within civilization. Many writers and thinkers through the centuries of Western civilization have believed in the noble savage. The expression is particularly associated with Jean-Jacques Rousseau .

The noble savage engaged in the most congenial occupation of his heart, that of butchery, is not seen at his best.

You are as free as when God first made man, Ere the vile laws of servitude began, And wild in woods the noble savage ran.

There is really something modern in this deep lament of the noble savage!

Of course the noble savage was himself in the constant habit of shooting at animals and enemies with a bow and arrow.

That great oracle, Tarbox himself, was not long ago a noble savage who ran wild in the woods near some country college.

April 24, 2024gallimaufry

[gal-uh-maw-free ]

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