THE autumn of 1850 brought an event freighted with deep significance to me. My mother died.

In such a condition of affairs, the practical difference between the abolitionist and the sympathizer, to the man who lost his slave and could not recover it, was very nebulous.

In those days, slavery was not looked upon, even in Quaker Philadelphia, with the shudder and abhorrence one feels towards it now.

John Brown was tried for treason, murder, and inciting slaves to insurrection.

I was a tried seaman when, for the first time, I set foot upon the soil of my country, and took up my residence where my people had lived for over two hundred years.

In the year 1857, passing through Washington on our return from the annual visit to Philadelphia, I had the distinguished honor of visiting a President for the first time.

However the Southern man may have been master of the negro, there were compensatory processes whereby certain negroes were masters of their masters' children.

In all her history, from the formation of the federal government until the hour of secession, no year stands out more prominently than the year 1858 as evidencing the national patriotism of Virginia.

The first American ancestor of our name was a younger son of these old Devonshire people, and came to the Virginia colony in the reign of Charles the First.

As early as the autumn of 1862, I was made very happy by being sent to school.

My mother was a Northern woman, daughter of Hon. John Sergeant, a distinguished lawyer, and for many years representative in Congress from Philadelphia.

People are successful because they think and act like successful people.

If women have failed to make “universal” art because we’re trapped within the “personal, ” why not universalize the “personal” and make it the subject of our art?

Writing the next lines and words of your life is something only you can do. We write our own stories.

I'm really proud of the fact that anywhere, at any time, I can make music. A lot of people can't do that.

Oh courage...oh yes! If only one had that...Then life might be livable, in spite of everything.

Friendship, Roland realized, was its very own kind of love.

All of the heroes you see falling down were filmed trying to stand up.

I travel like a gypsy, and I didn't know how I could perform and be a mother.

The excessive increase of anything causes a reaction in the opposite direction.

Anyone can be rich in promises.