Frederick Douglass Quotes - Page 2

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• Without culture there can be no growth; without exertion, no acquisition; without friction, no polish; without labor, no knowledge; without action, no progress; and without conflict, no victory. The man who lies down a fool at night, hoping that he will waken wise in the morning, will rise up in the morning as he laid down in the evening.

  Frederick Douglass

  Wise, Morning, Lying

  105 Copy quote

• I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ; I therefore hatethe corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial, and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity. I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels.

  Frederick Douglass

  Land, Looks, Calling

  Frederick Douglass (2009). “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave: A Penguin Enriched eBook Classic”, p.132, Penguin

  158 Copy quote

• If we would reach a degree of civilization higher and grander than any yet attained, we should welcome to our ample continent all the nations, kindreds, tongues and peoples, and as fast as they learn our language and comprehend the duties of citizenship, we should incorporate them into the American body politic. The outspread wings of the American eagle are broad enough to shelter all who are likely to come.

  Frederick Douglass

  Eagles, Civilization, Wings

  "Our Composite Nationality". Frederick Douglass' Address in Boston, Massachusetts, teachingamericanhistory.org. December 7, 1869.

  72 Copy quote

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

  Frederick Douglass

  Life, Being Yourself, Men

  W. E. B. Du Bois, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington (2012). “Three African-American Classics: Up from Slavery, The Souls of Black Folk and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, p.48, Courier Corporation

  57 Copy quote

• Praying for freedom never did me any good til I started praying with my feet.

  Frederick Douglass

  Feet, Praying

  53 Copy quote

• [A] woman should have every honorable motive to exertion which is enjoyed by man, to the full extent of her capacities and endowments. The case is too plain for argument. Nature has given woman the same powers, and subjected her to the same earth, breathes the same air, subsists on the same food, physical, moral, mental and spiritual. She has, therefore, an equal right with man, in all efforts to obtain and maintain a perfect existence.

  Frederick Douglass

  Spiritual, Men, Air

  Frederick Douglass (2011). “In the Words of Frederick Douglass: Quotations from Liberty’s Champion”, p.237, Cornell University Press

  55 Copy quote

• Opportunity is important but exertion is indispensable.

  Frederick Douglass

  Opportunity, Important, Self Made

  Frederick Douglass (2016). “The Essential Douglass: Selected Writings and Speeches”, p.338, Hackett Publishing

  19 Copy quote

• The opposite of compromise is character.

  Frederick Douglass

  Character, Opposites, Compromise

  29 Copy quote

• The man who will get up will be helped up; and the man who will not get up will be allowed to stay down.

  Frederick Douglass

  Men, He Man, Get Up

  Frederick Douglass (2013). “Great Speeches by Frederick Douglass”, p.134, Courier Corporation

  28 Copy quote

• When a great truth once gets abroad in the world, no power on earth can imprison it, or prescribe its limits, or suppress it. It is bound to go on till it becomes the thought of the world.

  Frederick Douglass

  Goes On, World, Earth

  Frederick Douglass, Philip Sheldon Foner, Yuval Taylor (1999). “Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings”, p.710, Chicago Review Press

  55 Copy quote

• Truth is proper and beautiful in all times and in all places.

  Frederick Douglass

  Beautiful, Truth, Truth Is

  Frederick Douglass (2008). “The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass”, p.353, Cosimo, Inc.

  48 Copy quote

• The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion.

  Frederick Douglass

  Uprising, Causes, Rebellion

  Frederick Douglass, Philip Sheldon Foner, Yuval Taylor (1999). “Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings”, p.594, Chicago Review Press

  72 Copy quote

• Man's greatness consists in his ability to do and the proper application of his powers to things needed to be done.

  Frederick Douglass

  Patriotic, Power, Greatness

  Frederick Douglass (1950). “The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass: Early years, 1817-1849”

  35 Copy quote

• The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nation's history — the very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you
  to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation's destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The
  principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.

  Frederick Douglass

  Gratitude, 4th Of July, Pride

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

  22 Copy quote

• Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitude.

  Frederick Douglass

  Multitudes, Traveled

  31 Copy quote

• The simplest truths often meet the sternest resistance and are slowest in getting general acceptance.

  Frederick Douglass

  Truth, Acceptance, Resistance

  43 Copy quote

• Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.

  Frederick Douglass

  Wisdom, Freedom, Men

  193 Copy quote

• Educate your sons and daughters, send them to school, and show them that beside the cartridge box, the ballot box, and the jury box, you also have the knowledge box.

  Frederick Douglass

  Daughter, School, Son

  83 Copy quote

• This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.

  Frederick Douglass

  Struggle, Blow, Tyrants

  Frederick Douglass, Milton Meltzer (1995). “Frederick Douglass, in his own words”, Harcourt Children's Books

  109 Copy quote

• Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

  Frederick Douglass

  Freedom, Power, Tyrants

  Speech, Canandaigua, N.Y., 4 Aug. 1857

  81 Copy quote

• We may explain success mainly by one word and that word is WORK! WORK!! WORK!!! WORK!!!!

  Frederick Douglass

  Motivational, Black History, May

  Frederick Douglass (2011). “In the Words of Frederick Douglass: Quotations from Liberty’s Champion”, p.230, Cornell University Press

  15 Copy quote

• People might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get.

  Frederick Douglass

  Life, Freedom, Work

  107 Copy quote

• To make a contented slave it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken the moral and mental vision and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason.

  Frederick Douglass

  Vision, Moral, Slave

  Frederick Douglass (2013). “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave”, p.122, Simon and Schuster

  27 Copy quote

• For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling in the nation must be quickened, the conscience of the nation must be roused, the propriety of the nation must be startled, the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed: and its crimes against God and man must be denounced.

  Frederick Douglass

  Men, Fire, Light

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

  88 Copy quote
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  If there is no struggle, there is no progress.

  Frederick Douglass

  Inspirational, Change, Moving On

  Speech, Canandaigua, N.Y., 4 Aug. 1857

  191 Copy quote

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