I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress.

Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.

Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.

The white man's happiness cannot be purchased by the black man's misery.

I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.

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

America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.

One and God make a majority.

A battle lost or won is easily described, understood, and appreciated, but the moral growth of a great nation requires reflection, as well as observation, to appreciate it.

The soul that is within me no man can degrade.

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed.

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.

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

A little learning, indeed, may be a dangerous thing, but the want of learning is a calamity to any people.

People might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get.