Frederick Douglass

"The very heart of slavery is the denial of the personhood of the enslaved."

"If you wish to know the value of freedom, speak to a slave."

"I have found that I am indeed a man."

"The work of reform rests upon the conscience of mankind."

"I am not included within the pale of this law. I am as much a man as any of you."

"The soul that is within me no man can degrade."

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

"I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs."

"Enslave the laborer and you enslave the employer."

"Knowledge is the pathway from slavery to freedom."

"The mind of man is capable of anything."

"I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."

"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, civilization dies."

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

"A man without force is without the essential dignity of humanity."

"I am a radical and always was."

"Mere elevation above a savage state is not a sufficient criterion of civilization."

"The white man's happiness cannot be purchased by the black man's misery."

"Knowledge flows like water, but we often choose to drink poison instead."

"The father may not frown down the mother's smile."

"I felt as though I had been carried into a new world."

"Let the American people know the truth and the country is safe."

"A man is worked upon by what he works upon."

"I would at times feel that if I could only get my aching head and beating heart quiet, I would be happy."

"There is no Negro problem. The problem is whether the American people have loyalty enough to live up to their own constitution."

"Beat the air and the dust will not rise."

"The best way to deal with an unfree act is not by going into a long discourse, but by a short, emphatic NO."

"Learning makes a man fit company for himself and others."

"The pathway from slavery to freedom passes through the schoolhouse."

"A man without conviction is like a ship without an anchor."