On the record
I have adopted a maxim laid down by Napoleon, never to occupy ground which the enemy would like me to occupy.
Said by
Frederick Douglass
Source
gutenberg.orgI have adopted a maxim laid down by Napoleon, never to occupy ground which the enemy would like me to occupy.
Douglass shares a strategic principle he follows in his activism, emphasizing the importance of choosing one's battles wisely.
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More from Frederick Douglass
None now denies the ability of the colored race to acquire knowledge of anything which can be communicated to the human understanding by letters.
They cannot be coaxed or driven to vote with their enemies against their friends.
Still another ground of hope I find in the fact that colored men are strong in their gratitude to benefactors, and firm in their political convictions.
No power beneath the sky can make an ignorant, wasteful, and idle people prosperous, or a licentious people happy.