“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.”

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.

Be mild with the mild, shrewd with the crafty, confiding to the honest, rough to the ruffian, and a thunderbolt to the liar. But in all this, never be unmindful of your own dignity.

Tis mean for empty praise of wit to write, As fopplings grin to show their teeth are white.

Holiness does not consist in mystic speculations, enthusiastic fervours, or uncommanded austerities; it consists in thinking as God thinks, and willing as God wills.

The angels are ministering spirits; they are not governing spirits.

Caution, Sir! I am eternally tired of hearing that word caution. It is nothing but the word of cowardice!

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.

It is not a case we are treating; it is a living, palpitating, alas, too often suffering fellow creature.

The intent and not the deed Is in our power; and, therefore, who dares greatly Does greatly.

Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery!

The same eye cannot both look up to heaven and down to earth.

I think every family should have a dog; it is like having a perpetual baby; it is the plaything and crony of the whole house. It keeps them all young.

I am worth inconceivably more to hang than for any other purpose.

These men are all talk; What is needed is action – action!

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.

There is a shrine in the temple of age, where lie forever embalmed the memories of such as have deserved well of their country and their race.

Some of us gave a little blood for the right to participate in the democratic process.

You have to go the way your blood beats. If you don’t live the only life you have, you won’t live some other life, you won’t live any life at all.

All beauty comes from beautiful blood and a beautiful brain.

The soul, which is spirit, can not dwell in dust; it is carried along to dwell in the blood.

Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric.

The devil’s agents may be of flesh and blood, may they not?

Use your blood to paint. Keep painting until you faint. Keep painting until you die.

I have a violence in me that is hot as death-blood.