Frederick Douglass

Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.

Frederick Douglass

Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.

Frederick Douglass

Let us render the tyrant no aid; let us not hold the light by which he can trace the footprints of our flying brother.

Frederick Douglass

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

My long-crushed spirit rose, cowardice departed, bold defiance took its place; and I now resolved that, however long I might remain a slave in form, the day had passed forever when I could be a slave in fact.

Frederick Douglass

Neither we, nor any other people, will ever be respected till we respect ourselves and we will never respect ourselves till we have the means to live respectfully.

Frederick Douglass

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

No people to whom liberty is given can hold it as firmly and wear it as grandly as those who wrench their liberty from the iron hand of the tyrant.

Frederick Douglass

Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.

Frederick Douglass

Oppression makes a wise man mad.

Frederick Douglass