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Political progress4 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 · 1852Maybe you can't override prejudice overnight, but the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863, ninety-odd years ago. I believe in gradualism. I also believe that ninety-odd years is pretty gradual. — Thurgood Marshall · 1987America3 quotes
The destiny of the colored American…is the destiny of America. — Frederick Douglass · 1862I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people, whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a republic; a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect Union, one and inseparable, established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes. I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its Constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies. — William Tyler Page · 1917In the United States today, we have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism. — Spiro Agnew · 1970Black Americans3 quotes
The destiny of the colored American…is the destiny of America. — Frederick Douglass · 1862They are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word "citizens" in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States. — Roger B. Taney · 1857Despite of it all, the Negro remains like iron or granite, cool, strong, imperturbable and cheerful. — Frederick Douglass · 1883Progress3 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 · 1857Maybe you can't override prejudice overnight, but the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863, ninety-odd years ago. I believe in gradualism. I also believe that ninety-odd years is pretty gradual. — Thurgood Marshall · 1987American Civil War2 quotes
Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged! — John Wilkes Booth · 1865It 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 politics2 quotes
Maybe you can't override prejudice overnight, but the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863, ninety-odd years ago. I believe in gradualism. I also believe that ninety-odd years is pretty gradual. — Thurgood Marshall · 1987In the United States today, we have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism. — Spiro Agnew · 1970Consequences 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 · 1886Constitutional law2 quotes
They are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word "citizens" in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States. — Roger B. Taney · 1857If the First Amendment means anything, it means that a State has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his own house, what books he may read or what films he may watch. — Thurgood Marshall · 1969Patriotism2 quotes
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 · 1847Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong. — Stephen Decatur · 1816Political theory2 quotes
Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust. — John Rawls · 1971The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. — H.L. Mencken · 1918Politics2 quotes
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. — Frederick Douglass · 1857The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. — H.L. Mencken · 1918Social progress2 quotes
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 · 1857Maybe you can't override prejudice overnight, but the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863, ninety-odd years ago. I believe in gradualism. I also believe that ninety-odd years is pretty gradual. — Thurgood Marshall · 1987Activism1 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 · 1857Adaptability1 quote
That's the part of it I always liked. He adjusted himself to beams falling, and then no more of them fell, and he adjusted himself to them not falling. — Dashiell Hammett · 1930American culture1 quote
South Sea natives who have been exposed to American movies classify them into two types, "kiss-kiss" and "bang-bang." — Hortense Powdermaker · 1950American elite1 quote
A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals. — Spiro Agnew · 1969American flag1 quote
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there-
O! say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave! — Francis Scott Key · 1814American 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 · 1852American unity1 quote
Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall. — John Dickinson · 1768Animal cruelty1 quote
Now and then a visitor wept, to be sure; but this slaughtering machine ran on, visitors or no visitors. It was like some horrible crime committed in a dungeon, all unseen and unheeded, buried out of sight and of memory. — Upton Sinclair · 1905Anti-Americanism1 quote
A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals. — Spiro Agnew · 1969Artists1 quote
The great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom even ordinarily respectable. — H.L. Mencken · 1919Beliefs1 quote
How long will the human race sweat under the superstition that, in order to be happy and useful and intelligent, it is necessary to believe in things? What nonsense indeed! Human progress consists, not in acquiring beliefs, but in getting rid of them. — H.L. Mencken · 1921Black experience1 quote
The ground which a colored man occupies in this country is, every inch of it, sternly disputed. — Frederick Douglass · 1853Capital punishment1 quote
The measure of a country's greatness is its ability to retain compassion in times of crisis. — Thurgood Marshall · 1972Capitalism1 quote
Capitalism undoubtedly has certain boils and blotches upon it, but has it as many as government? Has it as many as marriage? Has it as many as religion? I doubt it. It is the only basic institution of modern man that shows any genuine health and vigor. — H.L. Mencken · 1928Citizenship1 quote
They are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word "citizens" in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States. — Roger B. Taney · 1857Civil rights1 quote
Maybe you can't override prejudice overnight, but the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863, ninety-odd years ago. I believe in gradualism. I also believe that ninety-odd years is pretty gradual. — Thurgood Marshall · 1987Communication1 quote
Ideal conversation is an exchange of thought, and not, as many of those who worry most about their shortcomings believe, an eloquent exhibition of wit or oratory. — Emily Post · 1922