Those who cannot forgive others break the bridge over which they themselves must pass.
There's something wrong with a mother who washes out a measuring cup with soap and water after she's only measured water in it.
Fugitive slaves were rare then, and as a fugitive slave lecturer, I had the advantage of being the first one out.
I come from a home where gravy is a beverage.
Return good for good; return evil with justice.
Laugh now, cry later.
I am not an originator but a transmitter.
Laughter rises out of tragedy when you need it the most, and rewards you for your courage.
Writing cannot express all words, words cannot encompass all ideas.
Slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work.
What can a man do with music who is not benevolent?
Act with kindness but do not expect gratitude.
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.