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

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!

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.

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.

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.

So far as I ever observed God’s dealings with my soul, the flights of preachers sometimes entertained me, but it was Scripture expressions which did penetrate my heart, and in a way peculiar to themselves.

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.

Symptoms are the body’s mother tongue; signs are in a foreign language.

I cannot remember a night so dark as to have hindered the coming day.

I don’t think the people of the slave states will ever consider the subject of slavery in its true light till some other argument is resorted to other than moral persuasion.

I said there was a society of men among us, bred up from their youth in the art of proving by words multiplied for the purpose, that white is black, and black is white, according as they are paid. To this society all the rest of the people are as slaves.

Accidental things have purpose.

For me, the idea of a creation is not conceivable without invoking the necessity of design. One cannot be exposed to the law and order of the universe without concluding that there must be design and purpose behind it all.

Not every item of news should be published. Rather must those who control news policies endeavor to make every item of news serve a certain purpose.

But what if I fail of my purpose here? It is but to keep the nerves at strain, to dry one’s eyes and laugh at a fall, and baffled, get up and begin again.

Many religious people are deeply suspicious. They seem, for purely religious purposes, of course, to know more about iniquity than the unregenerate.

To do good things in the world, first you must know who you are and what gives meaning to your life.

Like so many named places in California it was less an identifiable city than a grouping of concepts–census tracts, special purpose bond-issue districts, shopping nuclei, all overlaid with access roads to its own freeway.