"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe."

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

"Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them."

"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."

"I didn't know I was a slave until I found out I couldn't do the things I wanted."

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

"I recognize the Republican party as the sheet anchor of the colored man's political hopes and the ark of his safety."

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress."

"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men."

"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."

"One and God make a majority."

"The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous."

"The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."