Known for his eloquence, the information below highlights some of Frederick Douglass' most insightful and memorable quotes.
“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” ― Frederick Douglass “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” ― Frederick Douglass
“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.” ― Frederick Douglass
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle.” ― Frederick Douglass
“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.” ― Frederick Douglass
“Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate
agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want
rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its
many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it
may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand.
It never did and it never will.” ― Frederick Douglass
“People might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get.” ― Frederick Douglass
“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” ― Frederick Douglass
“The American people have this to learn: that where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither person nor property is safe.” ― Frederick Douglass
“The white man's happiness cannot be purchased by the black man's misery.” ― Frederick Douglass
“A gentleman will not insult me, and no man not a gentleman can insult me.” ― Frederick Douglass
“It is easier to build strong men, than to repair broken ones.” ― Frederick Douglass
“To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.” ― Frederick Douglass
“In a composite nation like ours, as before the law, there should be no rich, no poor, no high, no low, no white, no black, but common country, common citizenship, equal rights and a common destiny.” ― Frederick Douglass
“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.” ― Frederick Douglass
“I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong.” ― Frederick Douglass
“Slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work.” ― Frederick Douglass
“I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.” ― Frederick Douglass
“Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning.” ― Frederick Douglass
“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.” ― Frederick Douglass
“The life of a nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous.” ― Frederick Douglass
“The destiny of the colored American ... is the destiny of America.” ― Frederick Douglass
“The silver trump of freedom roused in my soul eternal wakefulness.” ― Frederick Douglass
“Who would be free themselves must strike the blow...I urge you to fly to arms and smite to death the power that would bury the Government and your liberty in the same hopeless grave. This is your golden opportunity.” ― Frederick Douglass
“Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears.” ― Frederick Douglass
“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.” ― Frederick Douglass
“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.” ― Frederick Douglass