Quote

There is no negro problem. The problem is whether the American people have loyalty enough, honor enough, patriotism enough, to live up to their own constitution

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
Problem
Live
Negro
Enough
Patriotism
People
Loyalty
Constitution
Honor
American
Whether

More quotes by Frederick Douglass

Image
Yet people in general will say they like colored men as well as any other, but in their proper place.
Frederick Douglass
Image
Power concedes nothing without demand. It never has and never will. Show me the exact amount of wrong and injustices that are visited upon a person and I will show you the exact amount of words endured by these people.
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
You have to take power. No one gives it.
Frederick Douglass
Image
Mr. Lincoln was not only a great President, but a great man - too great to be small in anything. In his company I was never in any way reminded of my humble origin, or of my unpopular color.
Frederick Douglass
Image
The Federal Government was never, in its essence, anything but an anti-slavery government.
Frederick Douglass
Image
Right is of no sex, truth is of no color.
Frederick Douglass
Image
I could, as a free man, look across the bay toward the Eastern Shore where I was born a slave.
Frederick Douglass
Image
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
Image
Let us render the tyrant no aid.
Frederick Douglass
Image
We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and the future.
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
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
In life you don't get everything you pay for, but you must pay for everything you get.
Frederick Douglass
Image
I recognize the Republican Party as the sheet anchor of the colored man's political hopes and the ark of his safety.
Frederick Douglass
Image
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.
Frederick Douglass
Image
The ballot is the only safety.
Frederick Douglass
Image
Man's greatness consists in his ability to do and the proper application of his powers to things needed to be done.
Frederick Douglass
Image
I didn't know I was a slave until I found out I couldn't do the things I wanted.
Frederick Douglass