Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Man's greatness consists in his ability to do and the proper application of his powers to things needed to be done.
The man who is right is a majority. He who has God and conscience on his side, has a majority against the universe.
We are free to say that in respect to political rights, we hold women to be justly entitled to all we claim for men.
I recognize the Republican Party as the sheet anchor of the colored man's political hopes and the ark of his safety.
Always when you are about to say anything, first weigh it in your mind; for with many the tongue outruns the thought.
Let us render the tyrant no aid; let us not hold the light by which he can trace the footprints of our flying brother.
The District of Columbia is the one spot where there is no government for the people, of the people and by the people.
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.
This war, disguise it as they may, is virtually nothing more or less than perpetual slavery against universal freedoms.
I do not think much of the good luck theory of self-made men. It is worth but little attention and has no practical value.
No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.
Regard as your most faithful friends, not those who praise everything you say or do, but those who criticize your mistakes.
A great man, tender of heart, strong of nerve, boundless patience and broadest sympathy, with no motive apart from his country.
The sunlight that has brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine.
Poverty, ignorance and degradation are the combined evils, these constitute the social disease of the free colored people of the US.
Guard yourself against accusations, even if they are false; for the multitude are ignorant of the truth and look only to reputation.
I ask you...to adopt the principles proclaimed by yourselves, by your revolutionary fathers, and by the old bell in Independence Hall.
It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.
I maintain, then, that we should make peace, not only with the Chians, the Rhodians, the Byzantines and the Coans, but with all mankind.
Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.
I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.
I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress.
Experience proves that those are oftenest abused who can be abused with the greatest impunity. Men are whipped oftenest who are whipped easiest.
No people to whom liberty is given can hold it as firmly and wear it as grandly as those who wrench their liberty from the iron hand of the tyrant.
As those who believe in the visibility of ghosts can easily see them, so it is always easy to see repulsive qualities in those we despise and hate.
Instead of the bright, blue sky of America, I am covered with the soft, grey fog of the Emerald Isle. I breathe, and lo! the chattel becomes a man.
From the first I saw no chance of bettering the condition of the freedman until he should cease to be merely a freedman and should become a citizen.
We are Americans, speaking the same language, adopting the same customs, holding the same general opinions... and shall rise and fall with Americans.
A war undertaken and brazenly carried on for the perpetual enslavement of colored men, calls logically and loudly for colored men to help suppress it.
I expose slavery in this country, because to expose it is to kill it. Slavery is one of those monsters of darkness to whom the light of truth is death.
It is not fitting that the evil produced by men should be imputed to things; let those bear the blame who make an ill use of things in themselves good.
We succeed, not alone by the laborious exertions of our faculties, be they small or great, but by the regular, thoughtful and systematic exercise of them.
...of whom I can say with a grateful heart, 'I was hungry, and he gave me meat; I was thirsty, and he gave me drink; I was a stranger, and he took me in.'
Our community belongs to us and whether it is mean or majestic, whether arrayed in glory or covered in shame, we cannot but share its character and destiny.
There is no negro problem. The problem is whether the American people have loyalty enough, honor enough, patriotism enough, to live up to their own constitution
I know no class of my fellowmen, however just, enlightened, and humane, which can be wisely and safely trusted absolutely with the liberties of any other class.
A man without force, is without the essential dignity of humanity. Human nature is so constituted, that it cannot honor a helpless man, although it can pity him.
Neither we, nor any other people, will ever be respected till we respect ourselves and we will never respect ourselves till we have the means to live respectfully.
Though conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read.
The relation between the white and colored people of this country is the great, paramount, imperative, and all-commanding question for this age and nation to solve.
To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony.
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.
I love the religion of Christianity - which cometh from above - which is a pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of good fruits, and without hypocrisy.
Money is the measure of morality, and the success or failure of slavery as a money-making system, determines with many whether...it should be maintained or abolished.
Spend your leisure time in cultivating an ear attentive to discourse, for in this way you will find that you learn with ease what others have found out with difficulty.
Immense wealth, and its lavish expenditure, fill the great house with all that can please the eye, or tempt the taste. Here, appetite, not food, is the great desideratum.
A battle lost or won is easily described, understood, and appreciated, but the moral growth of a great nation requires reflection, as well as observation, to appreciate it.
The Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT. Read its preamble, consider it purposes. Is slavery among them? Is it at the gateway? or is it in the temple? it is neither.
A government, founded on impartial liberty, where all have a voice and a vote, irrespective of color or of sex--what is there to hinder such a government from standing firm.