academics-from-liberia

"This vast country has everything good and evil. It has sympathetic men and women, who can be as selfish as they can be kind. There is, in the words of Goethe, much light, but also much shade."

"But in spite of all this, freedom here is incomparable; no wonder then that the Negro can be lynched, and yet a Negro can stand and sing My Country Tis of Thee."

"There is very much to learn from the United States, if we can scratch the varnish off the surface and take the woodwork that is solid and not rotten."

"She speaks for herself, and gives a voice to African women and to the incredible experiences she’s had. It defies some accepted ways of thinking."

"I am aware that some, against all experience, are hoping for the day when they will enjoy equal social and political rights in this land. We do not blame them for so believing and trusting. But we would remind them that there is a faith against reason, against experience, which consists in believing or pretending to believe very important propositions upon very slender proofs, and in maintaining opinions without any proper grounds."

"Mohammed not only loved the Negro, but regarded Africa with peculiar interest and affection. He never spoke of any curse hanging over the country of people. When in the early years of his reform, his followers were persecuted and could get no protection in Arabia, he advised them to seek an asylum in Africa. "Yonder", he said, pointing towards this country, "yonder lieth a country wherein no man is wronged —a land of righteousness. Depart thither; and remain until it pleaseth the Lord to open your way before you". This recalls to us Homer’s "blameless Ethiopians", and the words of the Angel to Joseph: "Arise and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word again"."