Frederick Douglass Quotes - Page 5

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• The relation between the white and colored people of this country is the great, paramount, imperative, and all-commanding question for this age and nation to solve.

  Frederick Douglass

  Country, Patriotic, White

  Speech at the Church of the Puritans, New York, N.Y., May 1863

  17 Copy quote

• What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: A day that reveals to him, more than all other days of the year, the gross injustices and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.

  Frederick Douglass

  July, Years, Justice

  Speech, Rochester, N.Y., 5 July 1852

  15 Copy quote

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

  Frederick Douglass

  Men, Hands, Amount

  Frederick Douglass (2016). “The Essential Douglass: Selected Writings and Speeches”, p.339, Hackett Publishing

  13 Copy quote

• You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.

  Frederick Douglass

  Men, Black History, African American

  Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass ch. 10 (1845)

  24 Copy quote

• The thought of only being a creature of the present and the past was troubling. I longed for a future too, with hope in it. The desire to be free, awakened my determination to act, to think, and to SPEAK.

  Frederick Douglass

  Determination, Past, Thinking

  12 Copy quote

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

  Frederick Douglass

  Party, Men, Anchors

  Frederick Douglass' letter to men from Petersburg, Virginia (in the Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress), August 15, 1888.

  13 Copy quote

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

  Frederick Douglass

  Soul, Silver, Trump

  19 Copy quote

• Right is of no Sex-Truth is of no Color-God is the Father of us all, and we are all Brethren.

  Frederick Douglass

  Sex, Father, Color

  Frederick Douglass, Philip Sheldon Foner, Yuval Taylor (1999). “Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings”, p.91, Chicago Review Press

  11 Copy quote

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

  Frederick Douglass

  Motivational, Men, Gentleman

  13 Copy quote

• If the Negro knows enough to pay taxes to support the government, he knows enough to vote; taxation and representation should go together. If he knows enough to shoulder a musket and fight for the flag, fight for the government, he knows enough to vote.

  Frederick Douglass

  Fighting, Government, Support

  Frederick Douglass (2013). “Selected Addresses of Frederick Douglass”, p.30, Simon and Schuster

  18 Copy quote

• Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery.

  Frederick Douglass

  Reading, Hands, Principles

  What to the Slave is the 4th of July?, delivered 4 July 1852

  57 Copy quote

• Our community belongs to us and whether it is mean or majestic, whether arrayed in glory or covered in shame, we cannot but share its character and destiny.

  Frederick Douglass

  Character, Mean, Destiny

  10 Copy quote

• Let us render the tyrant no aid; let us not hold the light by which he can trace the footprints of our flying brother.

  Frederick Douglass

  Brother, Light, Tyrants

  Frederick Douglass (1846). “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave”, p.102

  21 Copy quote

• My hopes were never brighter than now.

  Frederick Douglass

  Brighter

  Frederick Douglass, Philip Sheldon Foner, Yuval Taylor (1999). “Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings”, p.347, Chicago Review Press

  9 Copy quote

• The District of Columbia is the one spot where there is no government for the people, of the people and by the people.

  Frederick Douglass

  Government, People, Columbia

  Frederick Douglass (2008). “The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass”, p.391, Cosimo, Inc.

  8 Copy quote

• A battle lost or won is easily described, understood, and appreciated, but the moral growth of a great nation requires reflection, as well as observation, to appreciate it.

  Frederick Douglass

  Patriotic, Reflection, Moral Growth

  Frederick Douglass, Philip Sheldon Foner, Yuval Taylor (1999). “Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings”, p.565, Chicago Review Press

  18 Copy quote

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

  Frederick Douglass

  Men, Justice, Diversity

  26 Copy quote

• Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever... I saw nothing without seeing it, I heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it. It looked from every star, it smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm.

  Frederick Douglass

  Stars, Wind, Forever

  "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave". Book by Frederick Douglass, 1845.

  13 Copy quote

• [...] endless action and reaction. Those beautifully rounded pebbles which you gather on the sand and which you hold in your hand and marvel at their exceeding smoothness, were chiseled into their varies and graceful forms by the ceaseless action of countless waves. Nature is herself a great worker and never tolerates, without certain rebuke, any contradiction to her wise example. Inaction is followed by stagnation. Stagnation is followed by pestilence and pestilence is followed by death.

  Frederick Douglass

  Wise, Hands, Example

  19 Copy quote

• I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute!

  Frederick Douglass

  Eye, Dark, Night

  Frederick Douglass (2016). “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave”, p.60, Xist Publishing

  53 Copy quote

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

  Frederick Douglass

  Country, Strong, 4th Of July

  18 Copy quote

• From my earliest recollection, I date the entertainment of a deep conviction that slavery would not always be able to hold me within its foul embrace; and in the darkest hours of my career in slavery, this living word of faith and spirit of hope departed not from me, but remained like ministering angels to cheer me through the gloom. This good spirit was from God, and to him I offer thanksgiving and praise.

  Frederick Douglass

  Cheer, Angel, Careers

  Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison (1849). “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave”, p.31

  20 Copy quote

• I have one great political idea... That idea is an old one. It is widely and generally assented to; nevertheless, it is very generally trampled upon and disregarded. The best expression of it, I have found in the Bible. It is in substance, "Righteousness exalteth a nation - sin is a reproach to any people." This constitutes my politics, the negative and positive of my politics, and the whole of my politics... I feel it my duty to do all in my power to infuse this idea into the public mind, that it may speedily be recognized and practiced upon by our people.

  Frederick Douglass

  Expression, Ideas, People

  Frederick Douglass' Speech Delivered At The Mass Free Democratic Convention At Ithaca, New York, history.furman.edu. October 14, 1852.

  10 Copy quote

• In regard to the colored people, there is always more that is benevolent, I perceive, than just, manifested towards us. What I ask for the negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy,
  but simply justice.

  Frederick Douglass

  People, Justice, Pity

  Frederick Douglass (2013). “Selected Addresses of Frederick Douglass”, p.32, Simon and Schuster

  14 Copy quote

• In this denial of the right to participate in government, not merely the degradation of woman and the perpetuation of a great injustice happens, but the maiming and repudiation of one-half of the moral and intellectual power of the government of the world.

  Frederick Douglass

  Government, Intellectual, Denial

  Frederick Douglass (1994). “Autobiographies”, p.907, Library of America

  20 Copy quote

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