Frederick Douglass Quotes

Quote #1

“I recognize the Republican party as the sheet anchor of the colored man's political hopes and the ark of his safety."

Quote #2

“A little learning, indeed, may be a dangerous thing, but the want of learning is a calamity to any people."

Quote #3

“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free."

Quote #4

“Fugitive slaves were rare then, and as a fugitive slave lecturer, I had the advantage of being the first one out.”

Quote #5

“I could, as a free man, look across the bay toward the Eastern Shore where I was born a slave.”  

Quote #6

"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe."

 Quote #7

“When men sow the wind it is rational to expect that they will reap the whirlwind."

Quote #8

“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."

Quote #9

“A battle lost or won is easily described, understood, and appreciated, but the moral growth of a great nation requires reflection, as well as observation, to appreciate it."

Quote #10

“I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress."

Quote #11

“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men."

Quote #12

“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.”

Quote #13

“Everybody has asked the question, and they learned to ask it early of the abolitionists, 'What shall we do with the Negro?' I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us."

 Quote #14

“Without a struggle, there can be no progress."

Quote #15

“Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground."

Quote #17

“I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs."

Quote #18

“People might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get."

Quote #19

“The white man's happiness cannot be purchased by the black man's misery."

Quote #20

"To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker."

 Quote #21

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."

Quote #22

"I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."

Quote #23

“Slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work."

 Quote #24

"It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake."

Quote #25

“Without Struggle There Is No Success."

Quote #26

“A gentleman will not insult me, and no man not a gentleman can insult me."

Quote #27

“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."

Quote #28

“It is easier to build strong men, than to repair broken ones."

Quote #29

"Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears."

Quote #31

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress."

Quote #32

“The man who is right is a majority. He who has God and conscience on his side, has a majority against the universe."

Quote #34

“Power concedes nothing without a demand."

Quote #35

“I had as well be killed running as die standing."

Quote #36

“The life of a nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous."

Quote #37

“The destiny of the colored American ... is the destiny of America."

Quote #38

“What to the Slave is the 4th of July?"

Quote #39

“Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitude."

Quote #40

“My hopes were never brighter than now."

Quote #41

“Some know the value of education by having it. I know it's value by not having it."

Quote #42

“A man who will enslave his own blood, may not be safely relied on for magnamity."

Quote #43

“A smile or a tear has not nationality; joy and sorrow speak alike to all nations, and they, above all the confusion of tongues, proclaim the brotherhood of man."

Quote #44

“The silver trump of freedom roused in my soul eternal wakefulness."

Quote #45

“For of all slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the worst. I have ever found them the meanest and basest, the most cruel and cowardly, of all others."

Quote #46

“Our destiny is largely in our hands."

Quote #47

“Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning."

Quote #48

“Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them."

Quote #49

“The relation between the white and colored people of this country is the great, paramount, imperative, and all-commanding question for this age and nation to solve."

Quote #50

“At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed."

Quote #51

“It was worth half-cent to kill a "nigger", and a half-cent to bury one."

Quote #52

“Immense wealth, and its lavish expenditure, fill the great house with all that can please the eye, or tempt the taste. Here, appetite, not food, is the great desideratum."

Quote #53

“The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart."

Quote #54

“I didn't know I was a slave until I found out I couldn't do the things I wanted."

Quote #55

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning."

Quote #56

“The thought of only being a creature of the present and past was troubling. I longed for a future too, with hope in it. The desire to be free, awakened my determination to act, to think, and to speak."

Quote #57

“Right is of no sex, Truth is of no color, God is the Father of us all, and we are all Brethren."

Quote #58

“Alas! I had not then learned the measure of "man's inhumanity to man," nor to what limitless extent of wickedness he will go for the love of gain."

Quote #59

“A man's character always takes its hue, more or less, from the form and color of things about him."

Quote #60

“One and God make a majority."

Quote #61

“We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and the future."

Quote #62

“The soul that is within me no man can degrade."

Quote #63

“I had a wholesome dread of the consequences of running in debt."

Quote #64

“From apparently the basest metals we have the finest toned bells."

Quote #66

“Having no resources within himself, he was compelled to be the copyist of many, and being such, he was forever the victim of inconsistency;"

Quote #67

“Man's greatness consists in his ability to do and the proper application of his powers to things needed to be done."

Quote #68

“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur my own abhorrence."

Quote #69

“There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him."

Quote #70

“America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future."

Quote #71

“The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion."

Quote #72

“How do you feel," said a friend to me, "when you are hooted and jeered on the street on account of your color?" "I feel as if an ass had kicked, but had hit nobody," was my answer."

Quote #73

“You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man."

Quote #74

“We were both victims to the same overshadowing evil—she, as mistress, I, as slave."

Quote #75

“Beware of a Yankee when he is feeding."

Quote #76

“The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous."

Quote #77

“They’ll read and sing a sacred song, And make a prayer both loud and long, And teach the right and do the wrong, Hailing htthe brother, sister, throng, With words of heavenly union."

Quote #78

“Most successful one was that of tarring his fence all around; after which, if a slave was caught."