My theory of self-made men is, then, simply this; that they are men of work. Whether or not such men have acquired material, moral or intellectual excellence, honest labor faithfully, steadily and persistently pursued, is the best, if not the only, explanation of their success... All human experience proves over and over again, that any success which comes through meanness, trickery, fraud and dishonour, is but emptiness and will only be a torment to its possessor.

I know of no rights of race superior to the rights of humanity...

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

From my earliest recollection, I date the entertainment of a deep conviction that slavery would not always be able to hold me within its foul embrace; and in the darkest hours of my career in slavery, this living word of faith and spirit of hope departed not from me, but remained like ministering angels to cheer me through the gloom. This good spirit was from God, and to him I offer thanksgiving and praise.

The simplest truths often meet the sternest resistance and are slowest in getting general acceptance.

What I ask for the Negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice.

Every one of us should be ashamed to be free while his brother is a slave.