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Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass Quotes

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Famous Frederick Douglass Quotes

“Vainly you talk about voting it down. When you have cast your millions of ballots, you have not reached the evil. It has fastened its root deep into the heart of the nation, and nothing but God's truth and love can cleanse the land. We must change the moral sentiment.”

HeartEvilNationsMoralMillionsLandRootsAnd LoveCastsVotingSentimentsBallotsTruth And Love
Book:Frederick Douglass: The Narrative and Selected Writings
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“My theory of self-made men is, then, simply this; that they are men of work. Whether or not such men have acquired material, moral or intellectual excellence, honest labor faithfully, steadily and persistently pursued, is the best, if not the only, explanation of their success... All human experience proves over and over again, that any success which comes through meanness, trickery, fraud and dishonour, is but emptiness and will only be a torment to its possessor.”

IfsMenHumansMadeSelfMoralHonestMaterialsTheoryProveIntellectualLaborExcellenceExplanationEmptinessFraudTormentHuman ExperiencePursuedMeannessSelf MadeTrickerySelf Made ManDishonour
Book:The Essential Douglass: Selected Writings and Speeches
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“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.”

IfsMenWantMayWisdomWaterFreedomMoralPowerStruggleProgressOceanRainFavorsTyrannyAwfulCensorshipLightningThunderCropsFreedom And LibertyAgitationPlowingDepreciateThunder And LightningMoral Struggle
Book:Frederick Douglass on Slavery and the Civil War: Selections from His Writings
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“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.”

PeopleMayFoundMoralStruggleDemandLimitsInjusticeBlowTyrannyEnduranceTyrantsSubmitInjustice And OppressionMoral Struggle
Book:Frederick Douglass, in his own words
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“I have observed this in my experience of slavery, - that whenever my condition was improved, instead of its increasing my contentment, it only increased my desire to be free, and set me to thinking of plans to gain my freedom. I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is right; and he can be brought to that only when he ceased to be a man.”

ThinkingMenFeelsMadeReasonAbleDesireFoundMoralVisionPlansConditionsGainsSlaverySlaveContentmentBe A ManInconsistency
Book:Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
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“[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.”

MenShouldEarthSpiritualGivenPerfectEffortExistenceMoralCasesAirEqualCapacityArgumentShould HaveBreatheEnjoyedMotiveHonorableExertionEndowmentPro Feminist
Book:In the Words of Frederick Douglass: Quotations from Liberty’s Champion
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“No, I make no pretension to patriotism. So long as my voice can be heard on this or the other side of the Atlantic, I will hold up America to the lightning scorn of moral indignation. In doing this, I shall feel myself discharging the duty of a true patriot; for he is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins.”

FeelsLongDoeCountryAmericaSidesVoiceSinMoralHeardDutyLoversExcuseLightningPatriotScornPretensionIndignationRebukeMoral Indignation
Author:Frederick Douglass
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“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.”

FearMy OwnMoralAtheismSelf EsteemAcceptanceIntegrityRespectAwakeningRageBeing TrueJournalismSelf RespectLove YourselfRidiculeHazardsRespect YourselfHonesty IntegrityHonesty And IntegrityAbhorrenceAcceptance Of OthersTrue To MyselfHonest And IntegrityFalsenessLove AcceptanceIncurringWomen Self RespectSelf Respect And DignityI Respect MyselfMoral Hazard
Book:Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
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