Frederick Douglass Quotes

“felt somewhat surprised that I could be so much at ease in such company, but I found it then, as I have since, that the higher the gradation in intelligence and refinement the farther removed are all artificial distinctions and restraints of mere caste or color.”
― Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass: The Most Complete Collection of His Written Works & Speeches

“The story of our inferiority is an old dodge, as I have said; for wherever men oppress their fellows, wherever they enslave them, they will endeavor to find the needed apology for such enslavement and oppression in the character of the people oppressed and enslaved. When”
― Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass: The Most Complete Collection of His Written Works & Speeches

“It has been thoughtfully observed that every nation, owing to its peculiar character and composition, has a definite mission in the world...our fundamental principles of government, world-embracing in their scope and character, our vast resources, requiring all manner of labor to develop them, and our already existing composite population, all conspire to one grand end, and that is, to make us the perfect natural illustration of the unity and dignity of the human family that the world has ever seen.”
― Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass: The Most Complete Collection of His Written Works & Speeches

“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others,”
― Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglas - Ultimate Collection: Complete Autobiographies, Speeches & Letters: Enriched edition. My Escape from Slavery, Narrative of the Life ... Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom…

“But to understand, Page 199 some one has said, a man must stand under.”
― This Ebook Features Dynamic Links for Ease of Navigation Plus Bonus Audiobook, Frederick Douglass: The Most Complete Collection of His Written Works & Speeches

“it was some time before I knew myself to be a slave.”
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“Douglass never made the mistake (a common one) of considering that his education was finished. He has continued to study, he studies now, and is a growing man, and at this present moment he is a stronger man intellectually than ever before.”
― This Ebook Features Dynamic Links for Ease of Navigation Plus Bonus Audiobook, Frederick Douglass: The Most Complete Collection of His Written Works & Speeches

“As a colored man I felt greatly encouraged and strengthened for my cause while listening to these men, in the presence of the ablest men of the Caucasian race. Mr. Ward especially attracted attention at that convention. As an orator and thinker he was vastly superior, I thought, to any of us, and being perfectly black and of unmixed African descent, the splendors of his intellect went directly to the glory of race. In depth of thought, fluency of speech, readiness of wit, logical exactness, and general intelligence, Samuel R. Ward has left no successor among the colored men amongst us, and it was a sad day for our cause when he was laid low in the soil of a foreign country.”
― This Ebook Features Dynamic Links for Ease of Navigation Plus Bonus Audiobook, Frederick Douglass: The Most Complete Collection of His Written Works & Speeches

“        Soon after becoming a reader of the Liberator, it was my privilege to listen to a lecture in Liberty Hall by Mr. Garrison, its editor. He was then a young man. of a singularly pleasing countenance, and earnest and impressive manner. On this occasion he announced nearly all his heresies. His Bible was his text-book--held sacred as the very word of the Eternal Father. He believed in sinless perfection, complete submission to insults and injuries, and literal obedience to the injunction if smitten "on one cheek to turn the other also." Not only was Sunday a Sabbath, but all days were Sabbaths, and to be kept holy. All sectarianism was false and mischievous--the regenerated throughout the world being members of one body, and the head Christ Jesus. Prejudice against color was rebellion against God. Of all men beneath the sky, the slaves, because most neglected and despised, were nearest and dearest to his great heart.”
― This Ebook Features Dynamic Links for Ease of Navigation Plus Bonus Audiobook, Frederick Douglass: The Most Complete Collection of His Written Works & Speeches