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. a generation:
the black night gave me black eyes
still I use them to seek the light

Gu Cheng

#5. 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

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

Elizabeth Keckley

#7. 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

#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. Izzy blows air out between her lips. "I wish nobody ever died," she says.

Lauren Oliver

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

Elizabeth Keckley

#11. 50 told me go head and switch the style up and if they hate, let 'em hate, watch the money pile up.

Kanye West

#12. The cardinal rule for any performer is that they should know themselves before they enter the spotlight, and I didn't. I was just Neil and I did what I was supposed to do. I was supposed to get married, so I got married. I was supposed to get a job, so I looked for work.

Neil Diamond

#13. Writing is the painting of the voice.

Voltaire

#14. You had day-of-the-week underwear growing up, didn't you?

Alexandra Bracken

#15. 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

#16. 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

#17. 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