Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.
About this quote
- Attributed to
- Frederick Douglass
- Attribution status
- As published
Photo: Diliff · CC BY-SA 2.5 · source · Portrait: George Kendall Warren (Public domain)
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More from Frederick Douglass & related wisdom
I often tell students that It is very important in life to be able to distinguish between the headlines and the trend lines. If the trend lines are bad, all the happy headlines in the world won't make things come out well. And if the trend lines are not as bad as the headlines, you should wake up every morning full of optimism and be content with the trend lines until the headlines catch up.
Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.

There is happiness in duty, although it may not seem so. To fulfill one's duty elevates the soul to a state of constant sweetness. Love is the bond between men, the way to teach and the center of the world.


