💬 Quotes

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest."

"I made a little book, in which I allotted a page for each of the virtues. I ruled each page with red ink, so as to have seven columns, one for each day of the week."

"I grew generally fond of the study, and took pleasure in it... I had been extremely fortunate in my choice of literary models, and particularly in the use of the Spectator."

"Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day."

"The subjects most healthy for a private mind to reflect upon are those where, clear of all historical perspective, you see the supreme power of moral character and self-discipline."

"Human minds are naturally prone to forgetfulness, especially of gratitude, and are quicker to resent an injury than to repay a kindness."

"Men are more easily governed by fear than by a sense of duty."

"In human affairs, the greatest dangers are often discovered where the greatest precautions have been taken against them."

"Events always show that the side with the greatest courage has also the greatest fortune."

"History is the best witness to the truth; it casts light upon antiquity, brings life to our recollection, and bestows a vital stamp on the monuments of the past."

"Reader, be assured this narrative is no fiction. I am aware that some of my adventures may seem incredible; but they are, nevertheless, the facts of my life."

"Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs, and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own."

"Pity me, and pardon me, O virtuous reader! You never knew what it is to be a slave; to be entirely unprotected by law or custom; to have the laws reduce you to the condition of a chattel."

"The heart heaved with conflicting emotions, of joy and sorrow, when I looked round on my children. They were bought, indeed; but then they were inexorably chained to my fate."

"Seven years I hid in that dingy hole, cheered only by the hope of better days. I am not telling a fictitious tale. Often I am physically exhausted with the hard struggle I have had for life."

"When they told me that my new-born babe was a girl, my heart was heavier than it had ever been before. Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women."

"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it."

"Machinery is accomplishing what toil was intended to accomplish so long ago. It is taking off the burdens of men and giving them a chance at life."

"A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business."

"Quality means doing it right when no one is looking."