The truth is the kindest thing we can give folks in the end.
Death! Strange that there should be such a word, and such a thing, and we ever forget it; that one should be living, warm and beautiful, full of hopes, desires and wants, one day, and the next be gone, utterly gone, and forever!
It takes years and maturity to make the discovery that the power of faith is nobler than the power of doubt; and that there is a celestial wisdom in the ingenuous propensity to trust, which belongs to honest and noble natures.
For, so inconsistent is human nature, especially in the ideal, that not to undertake a thing at all seems better than to undertake and come short.
The Lord gives a good many things twice over, but he don’t give ye a mother but once.
In the midst of life we are in death,'” said Miss Ophelia.
…the heart has no tears to give,–it drops only blood, bleeding itself away in silence.
An atmosphere of sympathetic influence encircles every human being; and the man or woman who feels strongly, healthily and justly, on the great interests of humanity, is a constant benefactor to the human race.
Strange, what brings these past things so vividly back to us, sometimes!
Governments derive their just power from the consent of the governed
The longest way must have its close – the gloomiest night will wear on to a morning.
One should have expected some terrible enormities charged to those who are excluded from heaven, as the reason; but no,—they are condemned for not doing positive good, as if that included every possible harm.
Every nation that carries in its bosom great and unredressed injustice has in it the elements of this last convulsion.
«Couldn’t never be nothin’ but a nigger, if I was ever so good,» said Topsy. «If I could be skinned, and come white, I’d try then.»
I tell you,” said Augustine, “if there is anything that revealed with the strength of a divine law in our times, it is that the masses are to rise, and the under class becomes the upper one.
We ought to be free to meet and mingle, –to rise by our individual worth, without any consideration of caste or color; and they who deny us this right are false to their own professed principals of human equality.
The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.
The sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the streets of Rome.
«It’s true, Christian-like or not; and is about as Christian-like as most other things in the world,» said Alfred.
Treat ’em like dogs, and you’ll have dogs’ works and dogs’ actions. Treat ’em like men, and you’ll have men’s works.
Talk of the abuses of slavery! Humbug! The thing itself is the essence of all abuse!
the country is almost ruined with pious white people: such pious politicians as we have just before elections, such pious goings on in all departments of church and state, that a fellow does not know who’ll cheat him next.
They will raise, and raise with them their mother’s side.
It is with the oppressed, enslaved, African race that I cast in my lot; and if I wished anything, I would wish myself two shades darker, rather than one lighter.
The benevolent gentleman is sorry; but, then, the thing happens every day! One sees girls and mothers crying at these sales, always! it can’t be helped, etc.; and he walks off, with his acquisition, in another direction.
The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.
Many a humble soul will be amazed to find that the seed it sowed in weakness in the dust of daily life has blossomed into immortal flowers under the eye of the Lord.
The Negro is an exotic of the most gorgeous and superb countries of the world and he has deep in his heart a passion for all that is splendid rich and fanciful.
When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you ’til it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer never give up then for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.
So much has been said and sung of beautiful young girls why doesn’t somebody wake up to the beauty of old women?
The past the present and the future are really one: they are today.
‘Cause I’s wicked – I is. I’s mighty wicked anyhow I can’t help it.
When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.
Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.
All places where women are excluded tend downward to barbarism; but the moment she is introduced, there come in with her courtesy, cleanliness, sobriety, and order.
To be really great in little things, to be truly noble and heroic in the insipid details of everyday life, is a virtue so rare as to be worthy of canonization.
Any mind that is capable of real sorrow is capable of good.
I would not attack the faith of a heathen without being sure I had a better one to put in its place.
The past, the present and the future are really one: they are today.