Skip to content
Shawords

Quote#Freedom

To make a contented slave it is necessary to make a thoughtless one.…

Quote byFrederick Douglass · 1818–1895

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (1845), Ch. 10.

English (original)

To make a contented slave it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken the moral and mental vision and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason.

— Frederick Douglass

More from Frederick Douglass