Autobiographies Quotes

“I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.”
― Frederick Douglass, Autobiographies: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass / My Bondage and My Freedom / Life and Times of Frederick Douglass

“I was most keenly sensitive to know any and everything possible that had any relation to the subject of slavery. I was all ears, all eyes, whenever the words slave or slavery dropped from the lips of any white person, and more and more frequently occasions occurred when these words came leading ones in high, social debate at our house.”
― Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass: All 3 Memoirs in One Volume: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom & Life and Times of Frederick Douglass

“Mr. Hunter not only congratulated me upon my speech, but at parting, gave me a friendly grip, and added that if Robert E. Lee were alive and present, he knew he would give me his hand also.”
― Frederick Douglass, The Complete Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass

“Intelligence is a great leveler here as elsewhere. It sees plainly the real worth of men and things, and is not easily imposed upon by the dressed up emptiness of human pride.”
― Frederick Douglass, The Complete Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass

“Everybody in the South seemed to want the privilege of whipping somebody else.”
― Frederick Douglass, The Complete Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass

“A man, without force, is without the essential dignity of humanity. Human nature is so constituted, that it cannot honor a helpless man, although it can pity him; and even this it cannot do long, if the signs of power do not arise.”
― Frederick Douglass, The Complete Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass

“Gustavus Dorgan, Joseph Bailey, Charles Farity, and William Cosdry.”
― Frederick Douglass, The Complete Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave; My Bondage and My Freedom; Life and Times of Frederick Douglass

“I felt some relief in contemplating the resting places of the dead, where there was an end to all distinctions between rich and poor, white and colored, high and low.”
― Frederick Douglass, The Complete Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass

“It told me many things, and among them that a new dispensation of justice, kindness, and human brotherhood was dawning not only in the North, but in the South; that the war and the slavery that caused the war were things of the past, and that the rising generation are turning their eyes from the sunset of decayed institutions to the grand possibilities of a glorious future.”
― Frederick Douglass, The Complete Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass

“The next part of this memorable trip took us to the home of Mrs. Buchanan, the widow of Admiral Buchanan, one of the two only living daughters of old Governor Lloyd, and here my reception was as kindly as that received at the Great House,”
― Frederick Douglass, The Complete Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass

“Leaving the Great House, my presence became known to the colored people, some of whom were children of those I had known when a boy. They all seemed delighted to see me, and were pleased when I called over the names of many of the old servants,”
― Frederick Douglass, The Complete Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass

“I am no minister of malice. I would not strike the fallen. I would not repel the repentant, but may my “right hand forget her cunning, and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth,” if I forget the difference between the parties to that terrible, protracted, and bloody conflict.”
― Frederick Douglass, The Complete Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass

“I esteem myself a good, persistent hater of injustice and oppression, but my resentment ceases when they cease, and I have no heart to visit upon children the sins of their fathers.”
― Frederick Douglass, The Complete Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass

“I wanted to be another Nat Turner; and if I did not look out, I should get as many balls into me, as Nat did into him. Thus ended the infant Sabbath school, in the town of St. Michael’s.”
― Frederick Douglass, The Complete Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass