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An ignorant man will trust to luck for success; an educated man will make success. God helps those who help themselves. (from Chapter XLIX: The New Era)

— William Wells Brown The Rising Son; or, the Antecedents and Advancement of the Colored Race (1873)

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More quotes by William Wells Brown

Black men, don’t be ashamed to show your colors, and to own them.

When will the Americans learn, that if they would encourage liberty in other countries, they must practice it at home?

Even a name by which to be known among men, slavery had denied me.

Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave (1848)

All I demand for the black man is, that the white people shall take their heels off his neck, and let him have a chance to rise by his own efforts.

The Black Man: His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements (1863)

Despotism increases in severity with the number of despots; the responsibility is more divided, and the claims are more numerous. (Chapter XX)

Clotel: or, The President's Daughter: a narrative of slave life in the United States (1853)

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We spend our lives fighting to get people very slightly more stupid than ourselves to accept truths that the great men have always known.

Doris Lessing The Golden Notebook (1962)

To rank the effort above the prize may be called love.

Confucius

Greatness by nature includes a power, but not a will to power.

Martin Buber Between Man and Man (1965)

The weak shows his strength and hides his weaknesses; the magnificent exhibits his weaknesses like ornaments.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: William Wells Brown (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.