Frederick Douglass

The true patriot is the one who dares to speak out against injustice.

The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class, but the cause of human kind, the very birthright of humanity.

I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us.

The free colored people of the United States are the hope of the colored people of the world.

The work of the abolitionist is not done until the black man is free in fact, as well as in name.

The white man's civilization is a curse to the black man.

The American government is a sham, a mockery, and a delusion.

The slave is a man, and as such, he has a right to freedom.

The true religion is to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.

The hope of the slave is in the justice of God.

I know of no soil better adapted to the growth of reform and liberty than is the corn-field of the North.

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.

Without a struggle, there can be no progress.

The life of a nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous.

I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.

Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains.

The soul that is within me no man can degrade.

I would unite with anybody to do right; and with nobody to do wrong.

The Constitution is a glorious liberty document.

Slaves are not allowed to read or write, but must depend on memory for their learning.