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William Lloyd Garrison
33 quotes
“The right to enjoy liberty is inalienable. To invade it is to usurp the prerogative of Jehovah. Every man has a right to his own body—to the products of his own labor—to the protection of law—and to the common advantages of society. It is piracy to buy or steal a native African, and subject him to servitude. Surely, the sin is as great to enslave an American as an African.”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) first seen 1833 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Declaration of Sentiments of the American Anti-Slavery Convention," speech in Philadelphia, (6 December 1833)
“But the moment he holds them [slaves] as property, however kindly he may treat them, he is a man-stealer, whom the apostle classes among ‘murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers.’”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) first seen 1835 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Gerrit Smith, (Feb. 7, 1835), The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison, vol. 1, Walter M. Merrill, edit., Belknap Press-Harvard University Press, 1971, p. 445
“Our country is the world, our countrymen are all mankind. We love the land of our nativity, only as we love all other lands. The interests, rights, and liberties of American citizens are no more dear to us than are those of the whole human race. Hence we can allow no appeal to patriotism, to revenge any national insult or injury.”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) first seen 1838 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Declaration of Sentiments, Boston Peace Conference (28 September 1838)
“The compact which exists between the North and the South is a covenant with death and an agreement with hell.”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) first seen 1843 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Resolution adopted by the Antislavery Society (27 January 1843); referencing Isaiah 28:15: "We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement".
“Every slave is a stolen man; every slaveholder is a man-stealer. By no precedent, no example, no law, no compact, no purchase, no bequest, no inheritance, no combination of circumstances, is slaveholding right or justifiable. While a slave remains in his fetters, the land must have no rest.”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) first seen 1854 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No Compromise with the Evil of Slavery" (1854) essay
“We have a natural right, therefore, to seek the abolition of slavery throughout the globe. It is our special duty to make Massachusetts free soil, so that the moment the fugitive slave stands upon it, he shall take his place in the ranks of the free. God commands us to "hide the outcast, and bewray not him that wandereth." I say, LET THE WILL OF GOD BE DONE! That is "the head and front" of my "fanaticism"! That is the extent of my "infidelity"! That comprehends all of my "treason"! THE WILL OF GOD BE DONE!”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) first seen 1859 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: John Brown and the Principle of Nonresistance (16 December 1859)
“What shall be said, then, of those who insist upon ignoring the question of slavery as not involved in this deadly feud, and maintain that the only issue is, the support of the government and the preservation of the Union? Surely, they are "fools and blind"; for it is slaveholders alone who have conspired to seize the one, and overturn the other. As long as the enslavement of a single human being is sanctioned in the land, the curse of God will rest upon it.”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) first seen 1861 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The War — Its Cause and Cure (3 May 1861)
“Reader! are you with the man-stealers in sympathy and purpose, or on the side of their down-trodden victims? If with the former, then are you the foe of God and man. If with the latter, what are you prepared to do and dare in their behalf? Be faithful, be vigilant, be untiring in your efforts to break every yoke, and let the oppressed go free. Come what may—cost what it may—inscribe on the banner which you unfurl to the breeze, as your religious and political motto—"No compromise with Slavery! No Union with Slaveholders!”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) first seen 1845 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Preface to Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1 May 1845)
“It is an abuse of language to talk of the slavery of wages... We cannot see that it is wrong to give or receive wages.”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) said by 1879 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Fateful Lightning: A New History of the Civil War and Reconstruction (2012), by Allen C. Guelzo, Chapter One
“Our country is the world — our countrymen are all mankind.”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) first seen 1831 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Motto of The Liberator (1831)
“Let Southern oppressors tremble — let their secret abettors tremble — let their Northern apologists tremble — let all the enemies of the persecuted blacks tremble.”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) first seen 1831 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No. 1 (1 January 1831)
“Better to be always in a minority of one with God — branded as madman, incendiary, fanatic, heretic, infidel — frowned upon by "the powers that be," and mobbed by the populace — or consigned ignominiously to the gallows, like him whose "soul is marching on," though his "body lies mouldering in the grave," or burnt to ashes at the stake like Wickliffe, or nailed to the cross like him who "gave himself for the world," — in defence of the RIGHT, than like Herod, having the shouts of a multitude crying, "It is the voice of a god, and not of a man!”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) first seen 1865 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Valedictory" (29 December 1865) in the last issue of The Liberator (1 January 1866)
“Little boldness is needed to assail the opinions and practices of notoriously wicked men; but to rebuke great and good men for their conduct, and to impeach their discernment, is the highest effort of moral courage. The great mass of mankind shun the labor and responsibility of forming opinions for themselves. The question is not — what is true? but — what is popular? Not — what does God say? but — what says the public? Not — what is my opinion? but — what do others believe?”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) said by 1879 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Unhappily, to borrow the words of Ganganelli, a large majority of mankind are "mere abortions": calling themselves rational and intelligent beings, they act as if they had neither brains nor conscience, and as if there were no God, no accountability, no heaven, no hell, no eternity.”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) said by 1879 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With reasonable men, I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments where they will certainly be lost.”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) said by 1879 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Since the creation of the world there has been no tyrant like Intemperance, and no slaves so cruelly treated as his.”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) said by 1879 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We may be personally defeated, but our principles never.”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) said by 1879 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The success of any great moral enterprise does not depend upon numbers.”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) said by 1879 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Sabbath, as now recognized and enforced, is one of the main pillars of Priestcraft and Superstition, and the stronghold of a merely ceremonial Religion.”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) said by 1879 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wherever there is a human being, I see God-given rights inherent in that being, whatever may be the sex or complexion.”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) said by 1879 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You cannot possibly have a broader basis for any government than that which includes all the people, with all their rights in their hands, and with an equal power to maintain their rights.”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) said by 1879 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I will say, finally, that I despair of the republic while slavery exists therein. If I look up to God for success, no smile of mercy or forgiveness dispels the gloom of futurity; if to our own resources, they are daily diminishing; if to all history, our destruction is not only possible, but almost certain. Why should we slumber at this momentous crisis? If our hearts were dead to every throb of humanity; if it were lawful to oppress, where power is ample; still, if we had any regard for our safety and happiness, we should strive to crush the Vampire which is feeding upon our life-blood. All the selfishness of our nature cries aloud for a better security. Our own vices are too strong for us, and keep us in perpetual alarm; how, in addition to these, shall we be able to contend successfully with millions of armed and desperate men, as we must eventually, if slavery do not cease?”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) first seen 1829 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to the Colonization Society (4 July 1829)
“I cherish as strong a love for the land of my nativity as any man living. I am proud of her civil, political and religious institutions — of her high advancement in science, literature and the arts — of her general prosperity and grandeur. But I have some solemn accusations to bring against her. I accuse her of insulting the majesty of Heaven with the grossest mockery that was ever exhibited to man — inasmuch as, professing to be the land of the free and the asylum of the oppressed, she falsifies every profession, and shamelessly plays the tyrant. I accuse her, before all nations, of giving an open, deliberate and base denial to her boasted Declaration, that "all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." I accuse her of disfranchising and proscribing nearly half a million free people of color, acknowledging them not as countrymen, and scarcely as rational beings, and seeking to drag them thousands of miles across the ocean on a plea of benevolence, when they ought to enjoy all the rights, privileges and immunities of American citizens. I accuse her of suffering a large portion of her population to be lacerated, starved and plundered, without law and without justification, at the will of petty tyrants. I accuse her of trafficking in the bodies and souls of men, in a domestic way, to an extent nearly equal to the foreign slave trade; which traffic is equally atrocious with the foreign, and almost as cruel in its operations. I accuse her of legalizing, on an enormous scale, licentiousness, fraud, cruelty and murder.”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) first seen 1833 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to the World Anti-slavery Convention, London (12 July 1833)
“I have not come here with reference to any flag but that of freedom. If your Union does not symbolize universal emancipation, it brings no Union for me. If your Constitution does not guarantee freedom for all, it is not a Constitution I can ascribe to. If your flag is stained by the blood of a brother held in bondage, I repudiate it in the name of God. I came here to witness the unfurling of a flag under which every human being is to be recognized as entitled to his freedom. Therefore, with a clear conscience, without any compromise of principles, I accepted the invitation of the Government of the United States to be present and witness the ceremonies that have taken place today. And now let me give the sentiment which has been, and ever will be, the governing passion of my soul: "Liberty for each, for all, and forever!”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) first seen 1865 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Charleston, South Carolina (14 April 1865)
“For ourselves, we are horror-struck at the late tidings. We have exerted our utmost efforts to avert the calamity. We have warned our countrymen of the danger of persisting in their unrighteous conduct. We have preached to the slaves the pacific precepts of Jesus Christ. We have appealed to christians, philanthropists and patriots, for their assistance to accomplish the great work of national redemption through the agency of moral power--of public opinion--of individual duty. How have we been received? We have been threatened, proscribed, vilified and imprisoned.... If we have been hitherto urgent, and bold, and denunciatory in our efforts--hereafter we shall grow vehement and active with the increase of danger. We shall cry, in trumpet tones, night and day,--Wo to this guilty land, unless she speedily repents of her evil doings! The blood of millions of her sons cries aloud for redress! IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION can alone save her from the vengeance of Heaven, and cancel the debt of ages!”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) first seen 1831 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Insurrection (3 September 1831)
“I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; — but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) first seen 1831 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To the Public", No. 1 (1 January 1831), quoted in
“Formerly, the purchase of Texas by our Government, for the purpose of bestowing it as a gift upon our colored population, was a favorite opinion of ours; but we have settled down into the belief, that the object is neither practicable nor expedient. In the first place, it is not probable that the Congress would make the purchase; nor, secondly, is it likely that the mass of our colored people would remove without some compulsory process; nor, thirdly, would it be safe or convenient to organise them as a distinct nation among us,—an imperium in imperio. The fact is, it is time to repudiate all colonization schemes, as visionary and unprofitable; all those, we mean, which have for their design the entire separation of the blacks from the whites. We must take our free colored and slave inhabitants as we find them—recognise them as countrymen who have extraordinary claims upon our charities—give them the advantages of education—respect them as members of one great family, who may be made useful in society and honorable in reputation. This is our view of the subject.”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) first seen 1861 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Liberator (22 January 1861)
“For, by the logic of Concord, Lexington, and Bunker Hill, and by the principles enforced by this nation in its boasted Declaration of Independence, Capt. Brown was a hero, struggling against fearful odds, not for his own advantage, but to redeem others from a horrible bondage, to be justified in all that he aimed to achieve, however lacking in sound discretion. And by the same logic and the same principles, every slave-holder has forfeited his right to live, if his destruction be necessary to enable his victims to break the yoke of bondage; and they, and all who are disposed to aid them by force and arms, are fully warranted in carrying rebellion to any extent, and securing freedom at whatever cost.”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) first seen 1859 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No. 170 (28 October 1859)
“Is Error, though unwittingly supported by a host of good men, stronger than Truth? Are Right and Wrong convertible terms, dependant upon popular opinion? Oh no! Then I will go forward in the strength of the Lord of Hosts — in the name of Truth — and under the banner of Right. As it is not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of God, that great moral changes are effected, I am encouraged to fight valiantly in this good cause, believing that I shall "come off conqueror, and more than conqueror" — yet not I, but Truth and Justice. It is in such a contest that one shall chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight.”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) said by 1879 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My country is the world; my countrymen are mankind.”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) said by 1879 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“I am in earnest. I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; I will not retreat a single inch; and I will be heard!”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) said by 1879 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Our country is the world; our countrymen are mankind.”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) said by 1879 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“I will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice.”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) said by 1879 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source