Life is a hard battle anyway. If we laugh and sing a little as we fight the good fight of freedom, it makes it all go easier. I will not allow my life's light to be determined by the darkness around me.

You have been having our rights so long, that you think, like a slave-holder, that you own us. I know that it is hard for one who has held the reins for so long to give up; it cuts like a knife. It will feel all the better when it closes up again.

It is hard for the old slave holding spirit to die. But die it must.

The rich rob the poor and the poor rob one another.

I am for keeping the thing going while things are stirring. Because if we wait till it is still, it will take a great while to get it going again.

I don't read such small stuff as letters, I read men and nations. I can see through a millstone, though I can't see through a spelling-book. What a narrow idea a reading qualification is for a voter!

I am glad to see that men are getting their rights, but I want women to get theirs, and while the water is stirring, I will step into the pool.