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Political progress3 quotes
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. — Frederick Douglass · 1857If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate 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 · 1857The man who is right is a majority. He who has God and conscience on his side, has a majority against the universe. Though he does not represent the present state, he represents the future state. If he does not represent what we are, he represents what we ought to be. — Frederick Douglass · 1852Black Americans2 quotes
The destiny of the colored American…is the destiny of America. — Frederick Douglass · 1862Despite of it all, the Negro remains like iron or granite, cool, strong, imperturbable and cheerful. — Frederick Douglass · 1883Consequences of oppression2 quotes
No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man, without at last finding the other end of it fastened about his own neck. — Frederick Douglass · 1883Where 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 · 1886Progress2 quotes
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. — Frederick Douglass · 1857If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate 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 · 1857Activism1 quote
If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate 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 · 1857America1 quote
The destiny of the colored American…is the destiny of America. — Frederick Douglass · 1862American Civil War1 quote
It is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced. — Frederick Douglass · 1852American hypocrisy1 quote
You profess to believe "that, of one blood, God made all nations of men to dwell on the face of all the earth," and hath commanded all men, everywhere, to love one another; yet you notoriously hate (and glory in your hatred) all men whose skins are not colored like your own! — Frederick Douglass · 1852American slavery1 quote
It is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced. — Frederick Douglass · 1852Black experience1 quote
The ground which a colored man occupies in this country is, every inch of it, sternly disputed. — Frederick Douglass · 1853Fighting for justice1 quote
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. — Frederick Douglass · 1857Independence Day1 quote
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. To him, your celebration is a sham. — Frederick Douglass · 1852Liberation1 quote
Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. — Frederick Douglass · 1845Music1 quote
Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. — Frederick Douglass · 1845National character1 quote
The life of a nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous. — Frederick Douglass · 1885Oppressor and oppressed1 quote
The story of our inferiority is an old dodge, as I have said: for wherever men oppress their fellows, wherever they enslave them, they will endeavor to find the needed apology for such enslavement and oppression in the character of the people oppressed and enslaved. — Frederick Douglass · 1865Patriotism1 quote
No, I make no pretension to patriotism. So long as my voice can be heard on this or the other side of the Atlantic, I will hold up America to the lightning scorn of moral indignation. In doing this, I shall feel myself discharging the duty of a true patriot; for he is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins. — Frederick Douglass · 1847Politics1 quote
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. — Frederick Douglass · 1857Power relations1 quote
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. — Frederick Douglass · 1857Race in America1 quote
The destiny of the colored American…is the destiny of America. — Frederick Douglass · 1862Race relations1 quote
The relation subsisting between the white and colored people of this country, is of all other questions, the great, paramount, imperative and all commanding question for this age and nation to solve. — Frederick Douglass · 1863Racial equality1 quote
We Negroes love our country. We fought for it. We ask only that we be treated as well as those who fought against it. — Frederick Douglass · 1893Slave songs1 quote
Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. — Frederick Douglass · 1845Slavery1 quote
Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. — Frederick Douglass · 1845Social progress1 quote
If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate 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 · 1857Threats to the nation1 quote
The life of a nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous. — Frederick Douglass · 1885