100+ Frederick Douglass Quotes

Liberty for all; chains for none.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Chain Freedom Independence
Without a struggle, there can be no progress.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Business Inspirational Progress Struggle
I didn’t know I was a slave until I found out I couldn’t do the things I wanted.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Finding Slave Want
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.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

False Hazard Loyalty Myself Prefer
Be not discouraged. There is a future for you. The resistance encountered now predicates hope.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Discourage Encounter Future Hope Prediction Resistance
The District of Columbia is the one spot where there is no government for the people, of the people and by the people.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Country District Government People
Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Appearance Disappear Forever Freedom
A gentleman will not insult me, and no man not a gentleman can insult me.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Gentleman Insult Man
Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Book Forever Freedom Learning One Liner Reading
The simplest truths often meet the sternest resistance and are slowest in getting general acceptance.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Acceptance General Meet Resistance Slow Truth
The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppose.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Endurance Limitation Prescribe
The opposite of compromise is character.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Character Compromise One Liner Opposite
I didn’t know I was a slave until I found out I couldn’t do the things I wanted.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Finding Slave Want
We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and the future.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Future Inspirational Let Go Past Present
What upon Earth is the matter with the American people? Do they really covet the world’s ridicule as well as their own social and political ruin?
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Country Earth People Politics World
Right is of no sex, Truth is of no color, God is the Father of us all, and we are all Brethren.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Color Father Sex Truth
Immense wealth, and its lavish expenditure, fill the great house with all that can please the eye, or tempt the taste. Here, appetite, not food, is the great desideratum.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Expenditure Food House Immense Please Taste Wealth
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

People
We are free to say that in respect to political rights, we hold women to be justly entitled to all we claim for men.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Claim Freedom Men Politics Respect Rights Women Women Rights
My hopes were never brighter than now.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Bright Hope Morning One Liner Positive
Education means emancipation. It means light and liberty. It means the uplifting of the soul of man into the glorious light of truth, the light by which men can only be made free.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Education Freedom Glorious Liberty Man Truth Uplift
I do not think much of the good luck theory of self-made men. It is worth but little attention and has no practical value.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Attention Men Practical Theory Thinking Value Worth
You have to take power. No one gives it.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Giving Inspirational One Liner Power
Praying for freedom never did me any good til I started praying with my feet.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Answer Freedom Legs Prayer Receive
A great man, tender of heart, strong of nerve, boundless patience and broadest sympathy, with no motive apart from his country.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Country Greatness Heart Man Patience Strong Sympathy
Some know the value of education by having it. I knew its value by not having it.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Education Slave Value
Our destiny is largely in our hands.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Finding Hard Time Slave

Frederick Douglass Quotes

Famous American writers