Frederick Douglass

"The slave-driver's lash is only one of the means of slavery."

"I have only the word of the oppressed to rely on as to their oppression."

"The highest refinement of cruelty consists in taking advantage of another's weakness."

"Genius is not born with insight, but develops it through struggle."

"The man who does not think for himself does not think at all."

"Every tone was a testimony against slavery."

"We have faith in the ultimate victory of the cause of freedom."

"The idea that God gave one class of men the right to enslave another class is monstrous."

"I would not exchange my life with a king."

"The power of a single heart that loves is greater than thousands of swords."

"I am for truth, however it comes, and for justice, however delayed."

"The man who is happy has a right to be happy."

"Nature has made nothing so capable of improvement as the human mind."

"I would rather be the object of abuse than the instrument of it."

"To make a contented slave it is necessary to make a thoughtless one."

"The rich inherit wealth, but the poor must inherit dreams."

"Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God."

"A battle lost or won is determined by the use made of reserves."

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress."

"The man who would be free must strike the first blow."

"I do not look upon any man as my superior."

"The condition of the slave is the condition of labor under unfavorable circumstances."

"I count myself nothing unless by what I leave behind."

"The future may be determined by the past, but it is not wholly ruled by it."

"Those who profess to favor freedom while deprecating agitation are hypocrites."

"I am myself within a circle of wonders and of signs."

"Learning to read was like watching a new world open before my eyes."

"The human intellect cannot be permanently suppressed."

"What one has been made to suffer injustice, one can understand injustice."

"A slave was not supposed to aspire to anything higher than to eat, drink, and sleep."