Quotes · verified word for word in the text
Uncle Tom’s Cabin quotes
15 quotes from Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Source: Project Gutenberg e-text #203 (public domain in the USA), the text this site’s reader shows. Each quote is copied exactly from that text and links to its passage in the reader; when this page was built, every quote was checked word for word against the reader’s text.
Any mind that is capable of a real sorrow is capable of good.
— Spoken by a character · XXVIII. Reunion
Scenes of blood and cruelty are shocking to our ear and heart. What man has nerve to do, man has not nerve to hear.
But you haven’t got us. We don’t own your laws; we don’t own your country; we stand here as free, under God’s sky, as you are; and, by the great God that made us, we’ll fight for our liberty till we die.
— George · XVII. The Freeman’s Defence
Mas’r, if you mean to kill me, kill me; but, as to my raising my hand agin any one here, I never shall,—I’ll die first!
— Tom · XXXIII. Cassy
You ought to be ashamed, John! Poor, homeless, houseless creatures! It’s a shameful, wicked, abominable law, and I’ll break it, for one, the first time I get a chance; and I hope I shall have a chance, I do!
— Spoken by a character · IX. In Which It Appears That a Senator Is But a Man
The longest way must have its close,—the gloomiest night will wear on to a morning.
Treat ’em like dogs, and you’ll have dogs’ works and dogs’ actions. Treat ’em like men, and you’ll have men’s works.
— Spoken by a character · XI. In Which Property Gets into an Improper State of Mind
Talk of the abuses of slavery! Humbug! The thing itself is the essence of all abuse!
— Spoken by a character · XIX. Miss Ophelia’s Experiences and Opinions Continued
“All men are free and equal in the grave, if it comes to that, Mr. Wilson,” said George.
— George · XI. In Which Property Gets into an Improper State of Mind
“I am braver than I was, because I have lost all; and he who has nothing to lose can afford all risks.”
— St · XXVIII. Reunion
“No! no! no! my soul an’t yours, Mas’r! You haven’t bought it,—ye can’t buy it! It’s been bought and paid for, by one that is able to keep it;—no matter, no matter, you can’t harm me!”
— Spoken by a character · XXXIII. Cassy
Of course, in a novel, people’s hearts break, and they die, and that is the end of it; and in a story this is very convenient. But in real life we do not die when all that makes life bright dies to us.
There are in this world blessed souls, whose sorrows all spring up into joys for others; whose earthly hopes, laid in the grave with many tears, are the seed from which spring healing flowers and balm for the desolate and the distressed.
A day of grace is yet held out to us. Both North and South have been guilty before God; and the Christian church has a heavy account to answer.
No tear dropped over that pillow; in such straits as these, the heart has no tears to give,—it drops only blood, bleeding itself away in silence.