Frederick Douglass Quotes

What to the Slave is the 4th of July.

Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.

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

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

The soul that is within me no man can degrade.

Some know the value of education by having it. I know its value by not having it.

If there is no struggle, there is no progress.

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

Praying for freedom never did me any good til I started praying with my feet.

Truth is proper and beautiful in all times and in all places.

A slave is someone who sits down and waits for someone to free them.

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

Intelligence is a great leveller here as elsewhere

Let us render the tyrant no aid.

It's a poor rule that won't work both ways.

He who would be free must strike the first blow.

I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.

Liberty for all; chains for none.

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

It is better to be part of a great whole than to be the whole of a small part.

Oppression makes a wise man mad.

In life, you don't get everything you pay for, but you must pay for everything you get.

Without a struggle, there can be no progress.

I know of no rights of race superior to the rights of humanity...

What is possible for me is possible for you.

Once you read, you will be free forever.

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

Interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the constitution is a Glorious Liberty Document!

You have to take power. No one gives it.

I know of no rights of race superior to the rights of humanity…

We may explain success mainly by one word and that word is WORK! WORK!!

Every one of us should be ashamed to be free while his brother is a slave.

I will unite with anyone to do good, but with no one to do harm.

A man’s rights rest in three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box.

You are not judged by the height you have risen, but by the depth, you have climbed.

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

I had a wholesome dread of the consequences of running into debt.

One and God make a majority.

For my part, I should prefer death to hopeless bondage.

Experience is a keen teacher.

I will give Mr Freeland the credit of being the best master I ever had, till I became my own master.

My hopes were never brighter than now.

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

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

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

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

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

Our destiny is largely in our hands.

Freedom is a road seldom travelled by the multitude.

The destiny of the coloured American … is the destiny of America.

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

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

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