19 Quotes & Sayings By William Lloyd Garrison

William Lloyd Garrison was born in Massachusetts, but raised in South Carolina. After graduating from Yale, he studied law for a year and then turned to the study of medicine. He practiced medicine for a short time but was soon called to duty as a surgeon in the Union Army during the Civil War. He served as a regimental surgeon for several months before going to South Carolina as a civilian physician Read more

In all, he served as a Union Army surgeon for about four years. In 1866, he settled in Boston and began publishing The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper. In 1869 he went to Europe, where he spent three months in Holland and Germany.

In England he met with William E. Gladstone, the British prime minister. It was at Gladstone's house that Garrison first became interested in organized labor and took part in a protest against the working conditions of miners in Belgium.

1
The standard of matrimony is erected by affection and purity, and does not depend upon the height, or bulk, or color, or wealth, or poverty of individuals. Water will seek its level; nature will have free course; and heart will answer to heart. William Lloyd Garrison
2
The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal and hasten the resurrection of the dead. William Lloyd Garrison
3
I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; – but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest – I will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat a single inch – AND I WILL BE HEARD. . William Lloyd Garrison
4
Be faithful, be vigilant, be untiring in your efforts to break every yoke, and let the oppressed go free. Come what may - cost what it may - inscribe on the banner which you unfurl to the breeze, as your religious and political motto - "NO COMPROMISE WITH SLAVERY! NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS William Lloyd Garrison
5
Fortunate, most fortunate occurrence! – fortunate for the millions of his manacled brethren, yet panting for deliverance from their awful thralldom! – fortunate for the cause of negro emancipation, and of universal liberty! – fortunate for the land of his birth, which he has already done so much to save and bless! – fortunate for a large circle of friends and acquaintances, whose sympathy and affection he has strongly secured by the many sufferings he has endured, by his virtuous traits of character, by his ever-abiding remembrance of those who are in bonds, as being bound with them! – fortunate for the multitudes, in various parts of our republic, whose minds he has enlightened on the subject of slavery, and who have been melted to tears by his pathos, or roused to virtuous indignation by his stirring eloquence against the enslavers of men! – fortunate for himself, as it at once brought him into the field of public usefulness, "gave the world assurance of a MAN, " quickened the slumbering energies of his soul, and consecrated him to the great work of breaking the rod of the oppressor, and letting the oppressed go free! . William Lloyd Garrison
6
I am in earnest I will not equivocate I will not excuse I will not retreat a single inch and I will be heard. William Lloyd Garrison
7
I am in earnest - I will not equivocate - I will not excuse - I will not retreat a single inch and I will be beard. William Lloyd Garrison
8
Wherever there is a human being I see God-given rights inherent in that being whatever may be the sex or complexion. William Lloyd Garrison
9
The compact which exists between the North and the South is a covenant with death and an agreement with hell involving both parties in atrocious criminality and should be immediately annulled. William Lloyd Garrison
10
We may be personally defeated, but our principles never! William Lloyd Garrison
11
The compact which exists between the North and the South is a covenant with death and an agreement with hell. William Lloyd Garrison
12
Every Fourth of July, our Declaration of Independence is produced, with a sublime indignation, to set forth the tyranny of the mother country and to challenge the admiration of the world. But what a pitiful detail of grievances does this document present in comparison with the wrongs which our slaves endure! William Lloyd Garrison
13
You can not possibly have a broader basis for government than that which includes all the people, with all their rights in their hands, and with an equal power to maintain their rights. William Lloyd Garrison
14
I do not believe that God has created us under this dire necessity to toil, like beasts, to sustain life. I believe it is his will that we should hold absolute mastery over time, so as to devote it mainly to intellectual and moral improvement, domestic enjoyment, and social intercourse. William Lloyd Garrison
15
The success of any great moral enterprise does not depend upon numbers. William Lloyd Garrison
16
With reasonable men, I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments where they will certainly be lost. William Lloyd Garrison
17
That which is not just is not law. William Lloyd Garrison
18
Enslave the liberty of but one human being and the liberties of the world are put in peril. William Lloyd Garrison