Quotes from Frederick Douglass

I love the religion of Christianity - which cometh from above - which is a pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of good fruits, and without hypocrisy.

Neither we, nor any other people, will ever be respected till we respect ourselves and we will never respect ourselves till we have the means to live respectfully.

It is the mission of the printer to diffuse light and knowledge by a judicious intermingling of black with white.

Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.

I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it.

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

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

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.

Experience proves that those are oftenest abused who can be abused with the greatest impunity. Men are whipped oftenest who are whipped easiest.

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

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

He who is whipped oftenest, is whipped easiest.

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

Without Struggle There Is No Success

Money is the measure of morality, and the success or failure of slavery as a money-making system, determines with many whether...it should be maintained or abolished.

In all the relations of life and death, we are met by the color line.

... and in thinking of my life, I almost forgot my liberty.

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.

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

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

A great man, tender of heart, strong of nerve, boundless patience and broadest sympathy, with no motive apart from his country.

What I ask for the Negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice.

Though conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read.

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.