quote · Legacy record
Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.
Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.
Approximate author period: c. 1856 AD · industrial
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Begin with source-checked readings and explanations ↗Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Frederick Douglass
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1856 AD · industrial
author lifetime midpoint (1818–1895)
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- Contributor-provided quotation collection
Supplied reference C; CSV row 130333; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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