Frederick Douglass Quotes

Quotes about:

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

  Frederick Douglass

  Inspirational, Motivational, Strength

  "The 100 best nonfiction books: No 68 - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass (1845)" by Robert McCrum, www.theguardian.com. May 22, 2017.

  449 Copy quote
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  You are not judged by the height you have risen, but from the depth you have climbed.

  Frederick Douglass

  Justice, Diversity, Depth

  321 Copy quote

• Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. They know its power. Thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, founded in injustice and wrong, are sure to tremble, if men are allowed to reason... Equally clear is the right to hear. To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.

  Frederick Douglass

  Men, Rights, Tyrants

  Frederick Douglass (2017). “Frederick Douglass: 100 Quotes on Bondage, Perseverance, and Redemption”

  256 Copy quote
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  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.

  Frederick Douglass

  Respect, Fear, Integrity

  Frederick Douglass (2013). “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave”, p.54, Simon and Schuster

  248 Copy quote

• If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle.

  Frederick Douglass

  Wisdom, Freedom, Rain

  Frederick Douglass (2014). “Frederick Douglass on Slavery and the Civil War: Selections from His Writings”, p.42, Courier Corporation

  342 Copy quote

• 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.

  Frederick Douglass

  Peace, Patriotic, Ignorance

  Speech on the twenty-fourth anniversary of emancipation in the District of Columbia,Washington, D.C., Apr. 1886

  297 Copy quote

• Education means emancipation. It means light and liberty. It means the uplifting of the soul of man into the glorious light of truth, the light by which men can only be made free.

  Frederick Douglass

  Uplifting, Mean, Men

  Frederick Douglass (2016). “The Essential Douglass: Selected Writings and Speeches”, p.355, Hackett Publishing

  229 Copy quote

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

  Frederick Douglass

  Men, Gun, Rights

  "How 'Crazy Negroes' With Guns Helped Kill Jim Crow" by Thaddeus Russell, reason.com. July 22, 2014.

  133 Copy quote

• 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.

  Frederick Douglass

  Freedom, Party, Black

  118 Copy quote

• Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down.

  Frederick Douglass

  Freedom, Rights, Tyrants

  Frederick Douglass (2013). “Selected Addresses of Frederick Douglass”, p.55, Simon and Schuster

  214 Copy quote

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

  Frederick Douglass

  Waiting, Down And, Slave

  140 Copy quote

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

  Frederick Douglass

  Harm

  91 Copy quote

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

  Frederick Douglass

  Reading, Book, Forever

  104 Copy quote

• There is no negro problem. The problem is whether the American people have loyalty enough, honor enough, patriotism enough, to live up to their own constitution

  Frederick Douglass

  Loyalty, People, Black History

  238 Copy quote

• Without a struggle, there can be no progress.

  Frederick Douglass

  Inspirational, Motivational, Freedom

  203 Copy quote

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

  Frederick Douglass

  Patriotic, Power, Greatness

  Frederick Douglass (1950). “The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass: Early years, 1817-1849”

  35 Copy quote

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

  Frederick Douglass

  Brother, Slave, Should

  Frederick Douglass, Philip Sheldon Foner (1975). “The life and writings of Frederick Douglass”

  17 Copy quote

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

  Frederick Douglass

  Beautiful, Truth, Truth Is

  Frederick Douglass (2008). “The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass”, p.353, Cosimo, Inc.

  47 Copy quote

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

  Frederick Douglass

  Freedom, Power, Tyrants

  Speech, Canandaigua, N.Y., 4 Aug. 1857

  81 Copy quote

• Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.

  Frederick Douglass

  Wisdom, Freedom, Men

  189 Copy quote

• In a composite Nation like ours, made up of almost every variety of the human family, there should be, as before the Law, no rich, no poor, no high, no low, no black, no white, but one country, one citizenship equal rights and a common destiny for all.
  A government that cannot or does not protect the humblest citizen in his right to life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness, should be reformed or overthrown, without delay.

  Frederick Douglass

  Country, Pursuit Of Happiness, Equality

  201 Copy quote

• 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.

  Frederick Douglass

  Respect, Mean, People

  Frederick Douglass (2016). “The Essential Douglass: Selected Writings and Speeches”, p.257, Hackett Publishing

  26 Copy quote

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

  Frederick Douglass

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Tyrants

  Frederick Douglass, Philip Sheldon Foner, Yuval Taylor (1999). “Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings”, p.367, Chicago Review Press

  24 Copy quote

• The mind does not take its complexion from the skin.

  Frederick Douglass

  Teaching, Intellectual, Intelligence

  Frederick Douglass, Milton Meltzer (1995). “Frederick Douglass, in his own words”, Harcourt Children's Books

  13 Copy quote

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

  Frederick Douglass

  Uprising, Causes, Rebellion

  Frederick Douglass, Philip Sheldon Foner, Yuval Taylor (1999). “Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings”, p.594, Chicago Review Press

  70 Copy quote

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