Frederick Douglass

"The pathway from slavery to freedom must be paved with truth."

"I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved."

"The condition of my people is the barometer of my own condition."

"I believe in the principle, I believe in the fact of human brotherhood."

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

"The American people have always been anxious to know what I think of them."

"I am for the immediate, unconditional and universal abolition of slavery."

"The Negro's skin is the color of nobility."

"Every nation has a right to determine its own destiny."

"I had escaped from a den of hungry lions."

"The price of the freedom of your race is the price of my freedom."

"I would stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is right."

"The habit of looking at the bright side of every calamity is worth more than a thousand pounds a year."

"Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground."

"I am but a speaking trumpet of the twelve millions of enslaved people."

"The moral arc of the universe bends toward justice, but it does not bend on its own."

"I came into this world a slave; I am leaving it a man."

"The question of all questions is: What is the true character of this government?"

"I have had but one great object, the emancipation and elevation of my race."

"A man cannot be truly free while his neighbor is enslaved."

"The work of the Anti-Slavery Society is to create the sentiment that slavery is wrong."

"I am not going to be made a fool of by any people whatsoever."

"The condition of the slave was not as degrading as the condition of the slaveholder."

"My soul is not for sale."

"The great work of the age is the abolition of slavery."

"I do not wear the brand of slavery on my forehead."

"Every principle of morality forbids slavery."

"I am not bound to satisfy anyone but myself."

"The man who is denied the right to work for himself is denied his humanity."

"I speak as a man who has lived in slavery and who now speaks as a free man."