Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Frederick Douglass
Age: 77 †
Born: 1818
Born: February 14
Died: 1895
Died: February 20
Abolitionist
Autobiographer
Businessperson
Caulker
Diplomat
Editor
Film Editor
Journalist
Orator
Politician
Suffragist
Writer
Talbot County
Maryland
Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey
Frederick Augustus Washington Baly
Fred Bailey
Freddie Bailey
Right
Exist
Utter
Thoughts
Tyrants
Liberty
Strike
Opinion
Dread
Rights
Meaningless
Freedom
Opinions
Firsts
Tyranny
First
Strikes
Ceased

More quotes by Frederick Douglass

Image
A little learning, indeed, may be a dangerous thing, but the want of learning is a calamity to any people.
Frederick Douglass
Image
Educate your sons and daughters, send them to school, and show them that beside the cartridge box, the ballot box, and the jury box, you also have the knowledge box.
Frederick Douglass
Image
The Federal Government was never, in its essence, anything but an anti-slavery government.
Frederick Douglass
Image
No man can be truly free whose liberty is dependent upon the thought, feeling and action of others, and who has himself no means in his own hands for guarding, protecting, defending and maintaining that liberty
Frederick Douglass
Image
Some know the value of education by having it. I know it's value by not having it.
Frederick Douglass
Image
He who is whipped oftenest, is whipped easiest.
Frederick Douglass
Image
Who would be free themselves must strike the blow. Better even to die free than to live slaves.
Frederick Douglass
Image
What I ask for the Negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice. ... All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone! ... Your interference is doing him positive injury.
Frederick Douglass
Image
When men sow the wind it is rational to expect that they will reap the whirlwind.
Frederick Douglass
Image
Let us render the tyrant no aid.
Frederick Douglass
Image
Men of Color, To Arms! The case is before you. This is our golden opportunity. Let us accept it, and forever wipe out the dark reproaches unsparingly hurled against us by our enemies. Let us win for ourselves the gratitude of our country, and the best blessings of our posterity through all time.
Frederick Douglass
Image
What I ask for the Negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice.
Frederick Douglass
Image
I glory in the conflict, that I may hereafter exult in the victory. I know that victory is certain.
Frederick Douglass
Image
If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
Frederick Douglass
Image
Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.
Frederick Douglass
Image
Right is of no sex, truth is of no color.
Frederick Douglass
Image
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.
Frederick Douglass
Image
When a great truth once gets abroad in the world, no power on earth can imprison it, or prescribe its limits, or suppress it. It is bound to go on till it becomes the thought of the world.
Frederick Douglass
Image
The simplest truths often meet the sternest resistance and are slowest in getting general acceptance.
Frederick Douglass
Image
Vainly you talk about voting it down. When you have cast your millions of ballots, you have not reached the evil. It has fastened its root deep into the heart of the nation, and nothing but God's truth and love can cleanse the land. We must change the moral sentiment.
Frederick Douglass