Keckley Quotes & Sayings

My fight is not for racial sameness but for racial equality and against racial prejudice and discrimination. — John Oliver Killens

Free, free! what a glorious ring to the word. Free! the bitter heart-struggle was over. Free! the soul could go out to heaven and to God with no chains to clog its flight or pull it down. Free! the earth wore a brighter look, and the very stars seemed to sing with joy. Yes, free! free by the laws of man and the smile of God-and Heaven bless them who made me so! — Elizabeth Keckley

Love is like that, fragile and light. No wonder it rests upon our hearts in intangible moments, bids us follow fleeting thoughts and ideas and pursue our abstract imaginings. — Belinda Jeffrey

Mr. Lincoln was generous by nature, and though his whole heart was in the war, he could not but respect the valor of those opposed to him. His soul was too great for the narrow, selfish views of partisanship. Brave by nature himself, he honored bravery in others, even his foes. — Elizabeth Keckley

I prefer reading to writing. Reading changes your world view. Writing changes absolutely nothing. Except, of course, when it makes you rich. — Michel Houellebecq

Even a lamb can defend itself, but a tree cannot even do that. If you are a just person, you never harm any tree, those defenceless angels! — Mehmet Murat Ildan

Friends are a recompense for all the woes of the darkest pages of life. — Elizabeth Keckley

Mary Lincoln provided Elizabeth Keckley with opportunities for social and economic advancement she probably had never imagined during her years as a slave, while Elizabeth offered Mary the loyal, steadfast friendship she craved but had always found so elusive. — Jennifer Chiaverini

When I heard the words, I felt as if the blood had been frozen in my veins, and that my lungs must collapse for the want of air. Mr. Lincoln shot! — Elizabeth Keckley

Notwithstanding all the wrongs that slavery heaped upon me, I can bless it for one thing-youth's important lesson of self-reliance. — Elizabeth Keckley

No one of this nation ever begs, for the houses of all are common to all; and they consider liberality and hospitality amongst the first virtues. — Giraldus Cambrensis

'What I would give,' I thought, 'to have been present as Elizabeth Keckley measured Mary Lincoln for a new gown, to overhear their conversations on topics significant and ordinary, to observe the Lincoln White House from such an intimate perspective.' — Jennifer Chiaverini

Humanity is a comic role. — Novalis

I lifted the white cloth from the white face of the man that I had worshipped as an idol-looked upon as a demi-god. Notwithstanding the violence of the death of the President, there was something beautiful as well as grandly solemn in the expression of the placid face. There lurked the sweetness and gentleness of childhood, and the stately grandeur of godlike intellect. I gazed long at the face, and turned away with tears in my eyes and a choking sensation in my throat. Ah! never was man so widely mourned before. The whole world bowed their heads in grief when Abraham Lincoln died. — Elizabeth Keckley

Nobody has a right to whip me but my own master, and nobody shall do so if I can prevent it — Elizabeth Keckley

Poor dusky children of slavery, men and women of my own race-the transition from slavery to freedom was too sudden for you! The bright dreams were too rudely dispelled; you were not prepared for the new life that opened before you, and the great masses of the North learned to look upon your helplessness with indifference-learned to speak of you as an idle, dependent race. Reason should have prompted kinder thoughts. Charity is ever kind. — Elizabeth Keckley

None of us are perfect, for which reason we should heed the voice of charity when it whispers in our ears, Do not magnify the imperfections of others. — Elizabeth Keckley

Spiritually good people, pure in heart, who long for the Blessed Sacrament but cannot receive at the time, can receive spiritually ... even a hundred times a day, in sickness and in health, with immeasurable grace and profit. — Johannes Tauler

For what were all these country patriots born? To hunt, and vote, and raise the price of corn? — Lord Byron

We who are crushed to earth with heavy chains, who travel a weary, rugged, thorny road, groping through midnight darkness on earth, earn our right to enjoy the sunshine in the great hereafter. At the grave, at least, we should be permitted to lay our burdens down, that a new world, a world of brightness, may open to us. The light that is denied us here should grow into a flood of effulgence beyond the dark, mysterious shadows of death. — Elizabeth Keckley

Sam. I've got news for you. Not every childhood trauma can be healed by finding the right penis."
Sam looked devastated. He opened and closed his mouth, eyes wide, then suddenly slumped back against the railing, unable to support himself anymore. "You mean," his voice was barely a whisper. "All those romance novels lied? — Anne Tenino

Confrontation is what happens when you are less than honest and you get caught. — Barbara Delinsky

I didn't know the answers, but I could feel that the things that gave life meaning came from a place within and from the nurturing of values like tolerance, charity, and community. — Dick Van Dyke

Elizabeth Keckley was a woman of remarkable strength, courage, perseverance, and dignity. She was exceptionally talented, but also very diligent and ambitious, and together those qualities enabled her to deliver herself from slavery and become a successful businesswoman. — Jennifer Chiaverini

I really only became an editor, or started doing my own editing because I was filming the docs and you simply can't keep an editor on for as long as it takes so. — John Hyams

My religion starts from where your arguments end. — Kunal Narayan Uniyal

Then it occurred to her (Elizabeth Keckley) that if Tad (Lincoln's son) had been a colored boy rather than the son of a president, and a teacher had found him so difficult to instruct, he would have been ridiculed as a dunce and held up as evidence of the inferiority of the entire race. Tad was bright; Elizabeth knew that well, and she was sure that with proper instruction and hard work, a glimmer of his father's genius would show in him too. But Elizabeth knew many black boys Tad's age who could read and write beautifully, and yet the myth of inferiority persisted. The unfairness of the assumptions stung. If a white child appeared dull, the entire race was deemed unintelligent. It seemed to Elizabeth that if one race should not judged by a single example, then neither should any other. — Jennifer Chiaverini

There are always some people who are ready to embrace a doctrine, a notion, a dogma, and they miss the real teaching. — Nhat Hanh

For an act may be wrong judged purely by itself, but when the motive that prompted the act is understood, it is construed differently. I lay it down as an axiom, that only that is criminal in the sight of God where crime is meditated. — Elizabeth Keckley

I was born a slave-was the child of slave parents-therefore I came upon the earth free in God-like thought, but fettered in action. — Elizabeth Keckley

So many are the deaths we die
Before we can be dead indeed. — William Ernest Henley