Frederick Douglass Quotes, Status, and Thoughts
Once you read, you will be free forever.
What is possible for me is possible for you.
I know of no rights of race superior to the rights of humanity...
Without a struggle, there can be no progress.
In life, you don't get everything you pay for, but you must pay for everything you get.
Oppression makes a wise man mad.
It is better to be part of a great whole than to be the whole of a small part.
At a time like this, scorching irony, not a convincing argument, is needed.
Liberty for all; chains for none.
I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.
He who would be free must strike the first blow.
It's a poor rule that won't work both ways.
Let us render the tyrant no aid.
Intelligence is a great leveller here as elsewhere
I didn't know I was a slave until I found out I couldn't do the things I wanted.
A slave is someone who sits down and waits for someone to free them.
Truth is proper and beautiful in all times and in all places.
Praying for freedom never did me any good til I started praying with my feet.
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.
If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
Some know the value of education by having it. I know its value by not having it.
The soul that is within me no man can degrade.
Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.
I didn’t know I was a slave until I found out I couldn’t do the things I wanted.
Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.
What to the Slave is the 4th of July.
Slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work.
A man who will enslave his own blood, may not be safely relied on for magnanimity.
The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion.
The destiny of the coloured American … is the destiny of America.
Freedom is a road seldom travelled by the multitude.
Our destiny is largely in our hands.
The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.
I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong.
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.
Right is of no sex, Truth is of no colour, God is the Father of us all, and we are all Brethren.
A gentleman will not insult me, and no man, not a gentleman can insult me.
My hopes were never brighter than now.
I will give Mr Freeland the credit of being the best master I ever had, till I became my own master.
Experience is a keen teacher.
For my part, I should prefer death to hopeless bondage.
One and God make a majority.
I had a wholesome dread of the consequences of running into debt.
From apparently the basest metals we have the finest toned bells.
You are not judged by the height you have risen, but by the depth, you have climbed.
A man’s rights rest in three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box.
I will unite with anyone to do good, but with no one to do harm.
Every one of us should be ashamed to be free while his brother is a slave.
We may explain success mainly by one word and that word is WORK! WORK!!
I know of no rights of race superior to the rights of humanity…
You have to take power. No one gives it.
Interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the constitution is a Glorious Liberty Document!
The silver trump of freedom roused in my soul eternal wakefulness.