50 Frederick Douglass Quotes – His Very Best Quotes!
Looking for the best Frederick Douglass quotes? These 50 epic Frederick Douglass quotes will show you what true wisdom is all about.
Hey my friend,
Let’s chat about Frederick Douglass quotes.
The following quotes from Frederick Douglass will definitely make you think and expand your mind.
These Frederick Douglass quotes will also give you a different perspective on life.
Let me share with you the very best Frederick Douglass quotes.
So without further ado, here are the 50 Frederick Douglass quotes – embrace these and enjoy!
FREDERICK DOUGLASS QUOTES
1 – Without a struggle, there can be no progress. Frederick Douglass
2 – No man can put a chain around the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck. Frederick Douglass
3 – The soul that is within me no man can degrade. Frederick Douglass
4 – Our destiny is largely in our hands. Frederick Douglass
5 – Power concedes nothing without demand. It never has and never will. Show me the exact amount of wrong and injustices that are visited upon a person and I will show you the exact amount of words endured by these people. Frederick Douglass
6 – You are not judged by the height you have risen, but from the depth you have climbed. Frederick Douglass
7- In studying the character and works of a great man, it is always desirable to learn in what he is distinguished from others, and what have been the causes of this difference. Frederick Douglass
8 – 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
9 – We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and the future. Frederick Douglass
10 – No man whose vision is bounded by color can come into contact with what is highest and best in the world. Frederick Douglass
FREDERICK DOUGLASS QUOTES
11 – Intelligence is a great leveler here as elsewhere. It sees plainly the real worth of men and things, and is not easily imposed upon by the dressed up emptiness of human pride. Frederick Douglass
12 – It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. Frederick Douglass
13 – I felt some relief in contemplating the resting places of the dead, where there was an end to all distinctions between rich and poor, white and colored, high and low. Frederick Douglass
14 – To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker. Frederick Douglass
15 – Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears. Frederick Douglass
16 – The life of a nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous. Frederick Douglass
17- I should esteem it a privilege to set you an example as to how mankind ought to treat each other. I am your fellow-man, but not your slave. Frederick Douglass
18 – Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. Frederick Douglass
19 – Experience is a keen teacher. Frederick Douglass
20 – 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
FREDERICK DOUGLASS QUOTES
21 – There is not a man beneath the canopy of Heaven who does not know that slavery is wrong for him. Frederick Douglass
22 – Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave. Frederick Douglass
23 – Some know the value of education by having it. I know it’s value by not having it. Frederick Douglass
24 – My day has been a pleasant one. My joys have far exceeded my sorrows and my friends have brought me far more than my enemies have taken from me. Frederick Douglass
25 – You degrade us, and then ask why we are degraded—you shut our mouths, and then ask why we don’t speak—you close your colleges and seminaries against us, and then ask us why we don’t know more! Frederick Douglass
26 – Once you learn to read, you’ll be forever free. Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave. Frederick Douglass
27- People might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get. Frederick Douglass
28 – The white man’s happiness cannot be purchased by the black man’s misery. Frederick Douglass
29 – The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. Frederick Douglass
30 – You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.Frederick Douglass
FREDERICK DOUGLASS QUOTES
31 – It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. Frederick Douglass
32 – They cannot degrade Frederick Douglass. The soul that is within me no man can degrade. I am not the one that is being degraded on account of this treatment, but those who are inflicting it upon me… Frederick Douglass
33 – I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs. Frederick Douglass
34 – Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave. Frederick Douglass
35 – In what new skin will the old snake come forth? Frederick Douglass
36 – I esteem myself a good, persistent hater of injustice and oppression, but my resentment ceases when they cease, and I have no heart to visit upon children the sins of their fathers. Frederick Douglass
37- To be accused was to be convicted, and to be convicted was to be punished; the one always following the other with immutable certainty. Frederick Douglass
38 – I didn’t know I was a slave until I found out I couldn’t do the things I wanted. Frederick Douglass
39 – My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute! Frederick Douglass
40 – If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. Frederick Douglass
This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Frederick Douglass
FREDERICK DOUGLASS QUOTES
41 – He was whipped oftener who was whipped easiest. Frederick Douglass
42 – You will be free as soon as you are twenty-one, but I am a slave for life! Have not I as good a right to be free as you have? Frederick Douglass
43 – Welcome, welcome joy, welcome sorrow, welcome pleasure, welcome pain. You are all the ingredients of life — and with you all, life is an inestimable blessing. Frederick Douglass
44 – It was the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties, and I look back to it now, after so many years, with some complacency and a little wonder that I could have been so earnest and persevering in any pursuit other than for my daily bread. I certainly saw nothing in the conduct of those around to inspire me with such interest: they were all devoted exclusively to what their hands found to do. Frederick Douglass
45 – Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. Frederick Douglass
46 -A man’s rights rest in three boxes. The ballot-box, the jury-box, and the cartridge-box. Frederick Douglass
47- For my part, I should prefer death to hopeless bondage. Frederick Douglass
48 – The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion. Frederick Douglass
49 – Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, (born circa 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American abolitionist, women’s suffragist, editor, orator, author, statesman and reformer. Called “The Sage of Anacostia” and “The Lion of Anacostia”, Douglass is one of the most prominent figures in African-American and United States history. He was a firm believer in the equality of all people, whether black, female, Native American, or recent immigrant. He was fond of saying, “I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong. Frederick Douglass
50 – 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
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Frances Vidakovic
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I’m Frances Vidakovic – a mindset & action coach for quietly ambitious women who want to stop overthinking and finally take aligned action. I help women achieve their goals and follow through on what matters, without sacrificing their sanity or soul.