Elizabeth Keckley Quotes

#1. '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

#2. 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

#3. 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

#4. 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

#5. Friends are a recompense for all the woes of the darkest pages of life.

Elizabeth Keckley

#6. 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

#7. I am all astonishment.

Jane Austen

#8. 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

#9. It is an extreme perversion of capitalism if you can trade in something before you have even paid for it.

James Dyson

#10. We are playing Russian roulette with features of the planet's atmosphere that will profoundly impact generations to come. How long are we willing to gamble?

David Suzuki

#11. Nobody has a right to whip me but my own master, and nobody shall do so if I can prevent it

Elizabeth Keckley

#12. Possessed of courage but devoid of morality, a superior man will make trouble while a small man will be a brigand.

Confucius

#13. Branching is easy. Merging is hard.

Eric Sink

#14. 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

#15. Life becomes a dilemma when you are living a purposeless and goalless life

Sunday Adelaja

#16. Cube's album Death Certificate: "Let me live my life, if we can no longer live our life, then let us give our life for the liberation and salvation of the black nation.

Ta-Nehisi Coates

#17. Justice, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Some see an innocent victim. Others will see evil incarnate getting exactly what's deserved.

Emily Thorne

#18. 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

#19. 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

#20. Wilhelm Steinitz was the first man to appreciate the inherent logic behind the game of chess.

William Hartston

#21. There is nothing like been consumed by the blazing fire of untold story.

Lailah Gifty Akita