Frederick Douglass

"Every tone was a testimony against slavery and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains."

"The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands."

"A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit."

"I would suggest that we might turn to better account the various abilities in every man."

"Hereditary bondmen! know ye not who would be free themselves must strike the blow."

"I will not perform the role assigned me; I will not cringe, I will not bend, I will be myself."

"The slaver's whip and the Christian's Bible were twin forces of oppression."

"To receive praise for virtues which we do not possess is an impudent deception upon the giver."

"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, there slavery continues."

"I have found that, to make a good imputation on my mind, I must do a good action."

"The fundamental objection to slavery never was that it made the slave miserable, but that it made him a slave."

"Education and elevation go hand in hand."

"Men may not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get."

"The feeling of the master is neither love nor loyalty; it is the feeling of the owner."

"Plant seeds of improvement everywhere."

"Slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work."

"I assert that woman, as well as man, is entitled to all the political rights which the word suffrage implyingly confers."

"Our very beings respond to the mysterious moving forces that prompt and propel us toward our destiny."

"The language of truth is always simple and consistent."

"To suppress free speech is a double wrong."

"I have observed that the slaveholder has his conscience, and his conscience is his slave."

"The highest truths are often the simplest and must be the plainest things in the world."

"It is not light that is needed, but fire."

"The Negro should be judged like other men, by his acts."

"Learning to read was like the dawn of day to me."

"Whatever may have been my circumstances, I feel bound to improve them."

"Slaveholders are not able to see their own condition."

"I would ask for a home, for a place in the social and political family of this country."

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

"Ignorance of the nature and causes of poverty contributes to the continuance of the evil."