The destiny of the colored American ... is the destiny of America.

A gentleman will not insult me, and no man not a gentleman can insult me.

I love the religion of Christianity - which cometh from above - which is a pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of good fruits, and without hypocrisy.

Having despised us, it is not strange that Americans should seek to render us despicable; having enslaved us, it is natural that they should strive to prove us unfit for freedom; having denounced us as indolent, it is not strange that they should cripple our enterprises.

We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and the future.

You are not judged by the height you have risen, but from the depth you have climbed.

Who would be free themselves must strike the blow. Better even to die free than to live slaves.