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.
¶ Speech, Civil Rights Mass Meeting, Washington, D.C. (1883)
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Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) American abolitionist and writer
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. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.
¶ “West India Emancipation,” speech at Canandaigua, NY (4 Aug. 1857)
Also cited (in part) as a letter to a colleague in 1849.
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WIST is my collection of quotations I find meaningful, moving, amusing (intended or not), well-phrased, and/or to which I just say I "Wish I'd Said That." But just because I quote it here doesn't mean I actually agree with it. If you have any comments, corrections, or suggestions, please don't hesitate to
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