“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.”

The soul that is within me no man can degrade.

One and God make a majority.

The ballot is the only safety.

A slave is someone who sits down, and waits for someone to free them.

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.

I will give Mr. Freeland the credit of being the best master I ever had, till I became my own master.

A man, at times, gets something for nothing, but it will, in his hands, amount to nothing.

I know of no rights of race superior to the rights of humanity.

The man who is right is a majority. He who has God and conscience on his side, has a majority against the universe.

No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.

If there is no struggle, there is no progress.

Liberty for all; chains for none.

Without a struggle, there can be no progress.

I didn’t know I was a slave until I found out I couldn’t do the things I wanted.

I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.

Be not discouraged. There is a future for you. The resistance encountered now predicates hope.

Black is not sad. Bright colours are what depress me. They’re so empty. Black is poetic. How do you imagine a poet? In a bright yellow jacket? Probably not.

All in all it was my intention to hold both the black and the white clientele by voicing the different kinds of songs in their customary tongues.

First of all, the music that people call Latin or Spanish is really African. So Black people need to get the credit for that.

Water from the white fountain didn’t taste any better than from the black fountain.

I don’t think it serves any minority or underrepresented group to be coddled. Because the world won’t coddle you. So I actually believe in tough love, hard truths, black and white.

This song ain’t black or white and as far as I know it don’t infringe on anyone’s copyright.

Black history won’t stop no bullets.

Did you see the 2000 Republican Presidential Convention? The last time the Republicans had that many Black people on a stage, they were selling them!