Frederick Douglass quotes

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If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
Frederick Douglass
Progress
Struggle
Slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work.
Frederick Douglass
Work
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.
Frederick Douglass
Power
Nothing
Will
People might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get.
Frederick Douglass
Work
People
World
One and God make a majority.
Frederick Douglass
God
Majority
No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.
Frederick Douglass
End
Man
Man's greatness consists in his ability to do and the proper application of his powers to things needed to be done.
Frederick Douglass
Greatness
Ability
Man
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
Fire
Light
I could, as a free man, look across the bay toward the Eastern Shore where I was born a slave.
Frederick Douglass
Man
Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.
Frederick Douglass
Society
Class
Ignorance
Justice
Poverty
Property
Will
The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous.
Frederick Douglass
Life
Nation
I recognize the Republican party as the sheet anchor of the colored man's political hopes and the ark of his safety.
Frederick Douglass
Man
Party
Republican
Safety
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
Abhorrence
Ridicule
I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.
Frederick Douglass
Years
Fugitive slaves were rare then, and as a fugitive slave lecturer, I had the advantage of being the first one out.
Frederick Douglass
Being
First