“The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle.”

Neither we, nor any other people, will ever be respected till we respect ourselves and we will never respect ourselves till we have the means to live respectfully.

You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.

A man is worked on by what he works on.

There is no negro problem. The problem is whether the American people have loyalty enough, honor enough, patriotism enough, to live up to their own constitution.

If I have advocated the cause of the Negro, it is not because I am a Negro, but because I am a man.

Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitude.

The man who will get up will be helped up; and the man who will not get up will be allowed to stay down.

The destiny of the colored American is the destiny of America.

What I ask for the Negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice.

I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress.

I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.

The silver trump of freedom roused in my soul eternal wakefulness.

To make a contented slave it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken the moral and mental vision and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason.

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

Slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work.

The mind does not take its complexion from the skin.

Just hoping for the gentle in the unknown.

I found the purpose of my existence, and also the purpose of my circumstance. There’s a purpose for why you’re in the fire.

Let things break you wide open, that’s where the golden light is.

The only unbearable thing is that nothing is unbearable.

After we come out of the storm we shouldn’t be the same individual that walked into it, That’s what the storms, opposition & adversity is about.

The ups and downs, the problems and stress, along with all the happiness, have given me optimism and hope because I am living proof of survival.

Facing it, always facing it, that’s the way to get through. Face it.

Night time thoughts lead nowhere but into melancholy.