Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears.
Frederick DouglassRead
Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Struggle is essential for progress and the advancement of liberty.
Frederick Douglass emphasizes that true progress in human liberty comes not easily but through earnest struggle and conflict. He argues that every concession made towards achieving freedom has resulted from intense efforts, highlighting that the process of struggle is what leads to meaningful change, as without struggle, progress is nonexistent.
Themes
StruggleProgressLibertyFreedomHuman Rights
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about civil rights, one might emphasize, 'As Frederick Douglass once stated, without struggle, there is no progress to remind us that change requires effort.'
More from Frederick Douglass
All quotes βWe may explain success mainly by one word and that word is WORK! WORK!! WORK!!! WORK!!!!
Frederick DouglassRead
I do not think much of the good luck theory of self-made men. It is worth but little attention and has no practical value.
Frederick DouglassRead
To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.
Frederick DouglassRead
The Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT. Read its preamble, consider it purposes. Is slavery among them? Is it at the gateway? or is it in the temple? it is neither.
Frederick DouglassRead
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.
Frederick DouglassRead
Similar quotes
There are two principles inherent in the very nature of things, recurring in some particular embodiments whatever field we explore - the spirit of change, and the spirit of conservation. There can be nothing real without both. Mere change without conservation is a passage from nothing to nothing. . . . Mere conservation without change cannot conserve. For after all, there is a flux of circumstance, and the freshness of being evaporates under mere repetition.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
Death is not the opposite of life. Life has no opposite. Death is the opposite of birth.
Eckhart TolleRead
Do not shorten the morning by getting up late; look upon it as the quintessence of life, as to a certain extent sacred.
Arthur SchopenhauerRead
In here, the human bosom -- mine, yours, everybody's -- there isn't just one soul. There's a lot of souls. But there are two main ones, the real soul and a pretender soul. Now! Every man realizes that he has to love something or somebody. He feels that he must go outward. 'If thou canst not love, what art thou?' Are you with me?
Saul BellowRead
Higher than the beasts, lower than the angels, stuck in our idiot Eden.
Ford Madox FordRead
We are like plants which have the one choice of being in or out of the light.
Simone WeilRead