Fugitive slaves were rare then, and as a fugitive slave lecturer, I had the advantage of being the first one out.
Slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work.
At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed.
I recognize the republican party as the sheet anchor of the colored man's political hopes and the ark of his safety.
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.
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.
America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.
A man's character always takes its hue, more or less, from the form and color of things about him.
I could, as a free man, look across the bay toward the eastern shore where I was born a slave.
A gentleman will not insult me, and no man not a gentleman can insult me.
We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and the future.
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.
I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.
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.
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.
Without a struggle, there can be no progress.
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.
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.
People might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get.
The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion.
The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous.
To suppress free speech is a double wrong. it violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.
The soul that is within me no man can degrade.
One and god make a majority.
Man's greatness consists in his ability to do and the proper application of his powers to things needed to be done.
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.
A little learning, indeed, may be a dangerous thing, but the want of learning is a calamity to any people.
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.
The white man's happiness cannot be purchased by the black man's misery.
If there is no struggle, there is no progress.