Frederick DouglassThinkers

4th of July is, for the slave, a day that reveals to him, more than all other days of the year, the gross injustices and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.

America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.

Education is the best approach to molding the society we desire — It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.

Free speech is vital — to suppress it is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.

Hard work is the only way to get what you deserve — People might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get.

Injustice is always perpetrated right up to the line of what will be tolerated -- one simply has to find out what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.

Injustice is amplified by silence — injustice and wrong will always be imposed on a people up to exact point at which they will quietly submit to it.

Justice is the result of action — 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.

The Multitude is no friend of freedom — freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitude.

A Nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous.

Oppression is always perpetrated right up to the line of what will be tolerated -- one simply has to find out what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.

Oppression is no boon for the oppressor, either — 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.