I am quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think vainly, flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done.
JOHN BROWNThe same eye cannot both look up to heaven and down to earth.
More John Brown Quotes
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The angels are ministering spirits; they are not governing spirits.
JOHN BROWN -
The United States is a place where the men govern, but the women rule.
JOHN BROWN -
It is not a case we are treating; it is a living, palpitating, alas, too often suffering fellow creature.
JOHN BROWN -
The intent and not the deed Is in our power; and, therefore, who dares greatly Does greatly.
JOHN BROWN -
These men are all talk; What is needed is action – action!
JOHN BROWN -
I am gaining in health slowly, and am quite cheerful in view of my approaching end, – being fully persuaded that I am worth inconceivably more to hang than any other purpose.
JOHN BROWN -
I cannot remember a night so dark as to have hindered the coming day.
JOHN BROWN -
Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery!
JOHN BROWN -
I want you to understand that I respect the rights of the poorest and weakest of colored people, oppressed by the slave system, just as much as I do those of the most wealthy and powerful. That is the idea that has moved me, and that alone.
JOHN BROWN -
Had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends…every man in this court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment.
JOHN BROWN -
I have been whipped, as the saying is, but I am sure I can recover all the lost capital occasioned by that disaster; by only hanging a few moments by the neck; and I feel quite determined to make the utmost possible out of a defeat.
JOHN BROWN -
Now let us thank th’ eternal power, convinced That Heaven but tries our virtue by affliction: That oft the cloud that wraps the present hour Serves but to brighten all our future days.
JOHN BROWN -
I am worth inconceivably more to hang than for any other purpose.
JOHN BROWN -
Caution, Sir! I am eternally tired of hearing that word caution. It is nothing but the word of cowardice!
JOHN BROWN -
Holiness does not consist in mystic speculations, enthusiastic fervours, or uncommanded austerities; it consists in thinking as God thinks, and willing as God wills.
JOHN BROWN