If There Is No Struggle, There Is

They Who Study Mankind With A Whip In Their Hands Will Always Go Wrong.

Though Conscious Of The Difficulty Of Learning Without A Teacher, I Set Out With High Hope, And A Fixed Purpose, At Whatever Cost Of Trouble, To Learn How To Read.

I Have Observed This In My Experience Of Slavery, - That Whenever My Condition Was Improved, Instead Of Its Increasing My Contentment, It Only Increased My Desire To Be Free, And Set Me To Thinking Of Plans To Gain My Freedom. I Have Found That, To Make A Contented Slave, It Is Necessary To Make A Thoughtless One. It Is Necessary To Darken His Moral And Mental Vision, And, As Far As Possible, To Annihilate The Power Of Reason. He Must Be Able To Detect No Inconsistencies In Slavery; He Must Be Made To Feel That Slavery Is Right; And He Can Be Brought To That Only When He Ceased To Be A Man.

I Prayed For Twenty Years But Received No Answer Until I Prayed With My Legs.

He Who Would Be Free Must Strike The First Blow.