Quotes from Frederick Douglass

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.

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.

The marriage institution cannot exist among slaves, and one sixth of the population of democratic America is denied it's privileges by the law of the land. What is to be thought of a nation boasting of its liberty, boasting of it's humanity, boasting of its Christianity, boasting of its love of justice and purity, and yet having within its own borders three millions of persons denied by law the right of marriage?

In a composite nation like ours, as before the law, there should be no rich, no poor, no high, no low, no white, no black, but common country, common citizenship, equal rights and a common destiny.

If there is no struggle there is no progress.

They suppress the truth rather than take the consequence of telling it, and in so doing prove themselves a part of the human family.

What to the Slave is the 4th of July.

These were choice documents to me... They gave tongue to interesting thoughts of my own soul, which had frequently flashed through my mind, and died away for want of utterance.

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

We are Americans, speaking the same language, adopting the same customs, holding the same general opinions... and shall rise and fall with Americans.

I do not think much of the good luck theory of self-made men. It is worth but little attention and has no practical value.

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

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

Mr. Lincoln was not only a great President, but a great man - too great to be small in anything. In his company I was never in any way reminded of my humble origin, or of my unpopular color.

Oppression makes a wise man mad.

Fortune may crowd a man's life with fortunate circumstances and happy opportunities, but they will, as we all know, avail him nothing unless he makes a wise and vigorous use of them.

The man who will get up will be helped up; and the man who will not get up will be allowed to stay down.

If I have advocated the cause of the Negro, it is not because I am a Negro, but because I am a man.

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

Instead of the bright, blue sky of America, I am covered with the soft, grey fog of the Emerald Isle. I breathe, and lo! the chattel becomes a man.

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

A man, at times, gets something for nothing, but it will, in his hands, amount to nothing.

Yet people in general will say they like colored men as well as any other, but in their proper place.

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