Thus, the painful liability to be returned again to slavery, which haunted me by day, and troubled my dreams by night, proved to be a necessary step in the path of knowledge and usefulness.
Douglass reflects on how the constant threat of re-enslavement, though agonizing, ultimately served as a crucial catalyst for his personal growth and public advocacy.
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They cannot be coaxed or driven to vote with their enemies against their friends.
No power beneath the sky can make an ignorant, wasteful, and idle people prosperous, or a licentious people happy.