John Brown was a popular American abolitionist leader who led a slave rebellion during the Civil War. He was known for his resolute statements against the practice of slavery and often resorted to violent means to end the heinous practice.
As a result of his violent actions, he was also termed as a madman and his persona remains as a controversial one. In this article, you will find 50 quotes by and about John Brown that will give you an insight into his mind.
Quotes by John Brown
1. “I have spent my whole life devouring silly novels & other miserable trash such as most of the newspapers of the day & other popular writings are filled with, thereby unfitting myself for the realities of life & acquiring a taste for nonsense & low wit.”– John Brown
2. “If my friends will hold up my hands while I live: I will freely absolve them from any expense over me when I am dead. I do not ask for pay but shall be most grateful for all the assistance I can get.”– John Brown
3. “Talk! Talk! Talk! That will never free the slaves. What is needed is action- action!”– John Brown
4. “I am quite cheerful under all my afflicting circumstances and prospects; having, as I humbly trust, ‘the peace of God which passeth all understanding’ to rule in my heart.”– John Brown
5. “Another error of my riper years has been that when any meeting of colored people has been called in order to consider of any important matter of general interest I have been so eager to display my spouting talents & so tenacious of some trifling theory or other that I have adopted that I have generally lost all sight of the business in hand consumed the time disputing about things of no moment & thereby defeated entirely many important measures calculated to promote the general welfare.”– John Brown
6. “We came to free the slaves, and only that.”– John Brown
7. “I have only a short time to live, only one death to die, and I will die fighting for this cause. There will be no peace in this land until slavery is done for.”
8. “I don’t think the people of the slave states will ever consider the subject of slavery in its true light till some other argument is resorted to other than moral persuasion.”– John Brown
9. “Had I so interfered on behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of their friends…and suffered and sacrificed what I have in this interference…every man in this court would have deemed it worthy of reward rather than punishment.”– John Brown
10. “Caution, Sir! I am eternally tired of hearing that word caution. It is nothing but the word of cowardice!”– John Brown
11. “I, John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.”– John Brown
12. “I have been whipped, as the saying is, but I am sure I can recover all the lost capital occasioned by that disaster; by only hanging a few moments by the neck; and I feel quite determined to make the utmost possible out of a defeat.”– John Brown
13. “When I strike, the bees will begin to swarm, and I want you to help hive them.”– John Brown
14. “If it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments-I submit; so let it be done.”– John Brown
15. “I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away, but with Blood. I had … vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed, it might be done.”– John Brown
16. “This is a beautiful country.”– John Brown
17. “I will have nothing to do with so mean an act. I would sooner take my gun and help drive you out of the country.”– John Brown
18. “There is a shrine in the temple of age, where lies forever embalmed the memories of such as have deserved well of their country and their race.”– John Brown
19. “During the war with England a circumstance occurred that in the end made him a most determined Abolitionist: & led him to declare, or Swear: Eternal war with Slavery.”– John Brown
20. “Talk is a national institution, but it does not help the slave.”– John Brown
21. “I want you to understand that I respect the rights of the poorest and weakest of colored people, oppressed [to deny others their rights or liberty] by the slave system, just as much as I do those of the most wealthy and powerful. That is the idea that has moved me, and that alone.”– John Brown
22. “Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery!”– John Brown
23. “The angels are ministering spirits; they are not governing spirits.”– John Brown
24. “I am yet too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered as I have done…in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right.”– John Brown
25. “I think every family should have a dog; it is like having a perpetual baby; it is the plaything and crony of the whole house. It keeps them all young.”– John Brown
26. “It is not a case we are treating; it is a living, palpitating, alas, too often suffering fellow-creature.”– John Brown
27. “Now let us thank the eternal power, convinced That Heaven but tries our virtue by affliction: That oft the cloud that wraps the present hour Serves but to brighten all our future days.”– John Brown
28. “Holiness does not consist in mystic speculations, enthusiastic fervors, or uncommanded austerities; it consists in thinking as God thinks, and willing as God wills.”– John Brown
29. “So far as I ever observed God’s dealings with my soul, the flights of preachers sometimes entertained me, but it was Scripture expressions which did penetrate my heart and in a way peculiar to themselves.”– John Brown
30. “I will answer anything I can with honor, but not about others.”– John Brown
31. “The intent and not the deed is in our power; and, therefore, who dares greatly, does greatly.”– John Brown
32. “Be mild with the mild, shrewd with the crafty, confiding to the honest, rough to the ruffian, and a thunderbolt to the liar. But in all this, never be unmindful of your own dignity.”– John Brown
33. “The same eye cannot both look up to heaven and down to earth.”– John Brown
34. “I am gaining in health slowly, and am quite cheerful in view of my approaching end, – being fully persuaded that I am worth inconceivably more to hang than any other purpose.”– John Brown
35. “I cannot remember a night so dark as to have hindered the coming day.”– John Brown
36. “Symptoms are the body’s mother tongue; signs are in a foreign language.”– John Brown
37. “It is mean for empty praise of wit to write, as foppling’s grin to show their teeth are white.”– John Brown
38. “No man, with a man’s heart in him, gets far on his way without some bitter, soul-searching disappointment. – Happy he who is brave enough to push on another stage of the journey, and rest where there are living springs of water, and threescore and ten palms.”– John Brown
39. “I never did intend murder, or treason, or the destruction of property, or to excite or incite slaves to rebellion, or to make insurrection.”– John Brown
40. “In the first place, I deny everything but what I have all along admitted, the design on my part to free the slaves.”– John Brown
41. “I believe that to have interfered as I have done, as I have always freely admitted I have done in behalf of His despised poor, is no wrong, but right.”– John Brown
42. “I never wanted to fight against the Union, but could not turn my back on Virginia.”– John Brown
43. “I acknowledge no master in human form.”– John Brown
44. “I see a book kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament. That teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so to them.”– John Brown
45. “I am worth inconceivably more to hang than for any other purpose.”– John Brown
Quotes about John Brown
1. “Old John Brown…agreed with us thinking slavery wrong. That cannot excuse violence, bloodshed, and treason. It could avail him nothing that he might think himself right.”– Abraham Lincoln
2. “Nobody was ever more justly hanged.”– Nathaniel Hawthorne
3. “The murderer and robber & fire-raiser so notorious for these crimes in his Kansas career, & now the attempter of the thousand-fold horrors in Virginia, is, for these reasons, the present idol of the north.”– Edmund Ruffin
4. “So perish all such enemies of Virginia! All such enemies of the Union! All such foes of the human race!”– Colonel Preston
5. “The meteor of the war.”– Herman Melville
