Always it gave me a pang that my children had no lawful claim to a name.

There are no bonds so strong as those which are formed by suffering together

The beautiful spring came; and when Nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also.

There are wrongs which even the grave does not bury.

When they told me 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.

Cruelty is contagious in uncivilized communities.

My master had power and law on his side; I had a determined will. There is might in each.

No pen can give an adequate description of the all-pervading corruption produced by slavery.

The degradation, the wrongs, the vices, that grow out of slavery, are more than I can describe. They are greater than you would willingly believe.

Hot weather brings out snakes and slaveholders, and I like one class of the venomous creatures as little as I do the other.

I would rather drudge out my life on a cotton plantation, till the grave opened to give me rest, than to live with an unprincipled master and a jealous mistress.

You have to be funny about it and honest about it. You can't leave yourself out of that mix. You have to be honest enough to say, I'm that messed-up one in the family.

What if the world is holding its breath - waiting for you to take the place that only you can fill?

In the kingdome of a cheater the wallet is carried before.

There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance-that principle is contempt prior to investigation.

If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?

Pay attention even to life's trifles.

I rejoiced in my progress, mourned my weaknesses, and commiserated the universal instability of human conduct.

It's an actor's job to play all the human conditions - light, dark, and medium.

Writing doesn't mean necessarily putting words on a sheet of paper. You can write a chapter while walking or eating.

Be an artist. Don't say it, do it.