William Lloyd Garrison Quotes

There must be no compromise with slavery – none whatever. Nothing is gained, everything is lost by subordinating principle to expediency.

I determined, at all hazard, to lift up the standard of emancipation in the eyes of the nation, within sight of bunker Hill and in the birth-place of liberty… I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there no cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, […]

At least one-half of the signers of that Declaration (of Independence) were the owners of slaves, whose fetters where riveted so tightly that not even revolutionary violence could sunder them… The last surviving signer was Charles Carroll of Carrollton, who completed almost a century, but who clung to his slaves more tenaciously than to life […]

Ought we not to be proud of our country, that in a large portion of it, human beings may be reckoned with wheat, hemp and corn, and staked on the result of a game of whist, a horse race, or a presidential election? This sort of gambling is common at the south, and is another […]

Our country is the world, our countrymen are all mankind. We love the land of our nativity, only as we love all other lands. The interests, rights, and liberties of American citizens are no more dear to us than are those of the whole human race. Hence we can allow no appeal to patriotism, to […]

Wherever there is a human being, I see God-given rights inherent in that being, whatever may be the sex or complexion.

What a mean, dwarfish, corrupt, partial, limited, oppressive Christianity is that which generally prevails in our land!… How basely it cringes before the powerful… How in the hour of trial, like treacherous Peter it denies all knowledge of Christ! how self-approvingly it transforms the image of God into an image like unto a beast, and […]

I am in earnest. I will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat an inch – and I will be heard. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.