Frederick Douglass

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

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

When men sow the wind it is rational to expect that they will reap the whirlwind.

It took me realizing that a broken heart has never actually killed anyone to find the courage to ask for what I want, in just about every situation. That was part of my own growing up.

After all, we are not French and never can be, and any attempt to be so is to deny our inheritance and to try to impose upon ourselves a character that can be nothing but a veneer upon the surface.

Here's the thing: you're not really ready for love until you have enough self-respect that if you met your exact self, but in a guy, you would totally, completely, absolutely want to be with him.