100+ Frederick Douglass Quotes

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Injustice Measure People Quiet Wrong
Opportunity is important but exertion is indispensable.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Exertion Important Inspirational Opportunity
Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Cease Existence Liberty Meaning Opinion Right
A smile or a tear has no nationality; joy and sorrow speak alike to all nations, and they, above all the confusion of tongues, proclaim the brotherhood of man.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Brotherhood Confusion Joy Man National Smile Sorrow Tears Tongue
Poverty, ignorance and degradation are the combined evils, these constitute the social disease of the free colored people of the US.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Color Constitution Country Degard Evil Ignorance People Poverty
Interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the constitution is a Glorious Liberty Document!
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Constitution Document Glorious Liberty
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.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Ourselves People Respect
You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Man Slave Time
A man is worked on by what he works on.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Man One Liner Work
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.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Black Lives Matter Constitution Country Honor People Problem
If I have advocated the cause of the Negro, it is not because I am a Negro, but because I am a man.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Advocate Cause Humanity Justice Man
Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitude.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Freedom Roads Seldom Travel
The man who will get up will be helped up; and the man who will not get up will be allowed to stay down.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Allow Help Man
The destiny of the colored American is the destiny of America.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

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

Black Lives Matter Justice Pity Sympathy
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.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Black Freedom Party Progress Republic
I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Answer Freedom Legs Prayer Receive
The silver trump of freedom roused in my soul eternal wakefulness.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Etermal Freedom Silver Wake
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.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Darkness Mental Moral Necessary Possible Power Reason Slave Vision
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Business Demand Market Politics Power
Slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Expectation Justice Sing Slave Work
The mind does not take its complexion from the skin.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Black Lives Matter Color Equality Mind Skin
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Broken Broken Heart Build Children Deep Men Repair Strong
Educate your sons and daughters, send them to school, and show them that beside the cartridge box, the ballot box, and the jury box, you also have the knowledge box.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Ballot Box Daughter Education Knowledge School Son
A woman should have every honorable motive to exertion which is enjoyed by man, to the full extent of her capacities and endowments.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Capacity Enjoyment Exertion Extend Honor Man Woman
Oppression makes a wise man mad.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Mad Man One Liner Oppression Wise
What is possible for me is possible for you.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Encouragement Motivational One Liner Possible

Frederick Douglass Quotes

Famous American writers