Top 30 Harriet Tubman Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”

— Harriet Tubman

Featured in: Quotes About Strength, Inspirational Quotes for Women, Motivational Quotes About Life, Positive Quotes for Women, Opportunity Quotes

2. “Every great dream begins with a dreamer.”

— Harriet Tubman

Featured in: Believe in Yourself Quotes, Make A Difference Quotes, Dreaming Big Quotes, Influence Quotes, Strong Women Quotes

3. “If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If there’s shouting after you, keep going. Don’t ever stop. Keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.”

— Harriet Tubman

4. “I freed thousands of slaves, and could have freed thousands more, if they had known they were slaves.”

— Harriet Tubman

5. “Never wound a snake; kill it.”

— Harriet Tubman

6. “I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say; I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”

— Harriet Tubman

7. “Slavery is the next thing to hell.”

— Harriet Tubman

8. “Lord, I’m going to hold steady on to You and You’ve got to see me through.”

— Harriet Tubman

9. “I never ran my train off the track, and I never lost a passenger.”

— Harriet Tubman

10. “I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything. The sun came up like gold through the trees, and I felt like I was in heaven.”

— Harriet Tubman

11. “The Lord who told me to take care of my people meant me to do it just as long as I live, and so I did what he told me.”

— Harriet Tubman

12. “I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.”

— Harriet Tubman

13. “I had crossed the line. I was free; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land.”

— Harriet Tubman

14. “I would fight for my liberty so long as my strength lasted, and if the time came for me to go, the Lord would let them take me.”

— Harriet Tubman

15. “I am at peace with God and all mankind.”

— Harriet Tubman

16. “I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person.”

— Harriet Tubman

17. “I can’t die but once.”

— Harriet Tubman

18. “We saw the lightning and that was the guns and then we heard the thunder and that was the big guns; and then we heard the rain falling and that was the blood falling; and when we came to get in the crops, it was dead men that we reaped.”

— Harriet Tubman

19. “I grew up like a neglected weed – ignorant of liberty, having no experience of it.”

— Harriet Tubman

20. “In my dreams and visions, I seemed to see a line, and on the other side of that line were green fields, and lovely flowers, and beautiful white ladies, who stretched out their arms to me over the line, but I couldn’t reach them no-how. I always fell before I got to the line.”

— Harriet Tubman

21. “If I could have convinced more slaves that they were slaves, I could have freed thousands more.”

— Harriet Tubman

22. “I would have been able to free a thousand more slaves if I could only have convinced them that they were slaves.”

— Harriet Tubman

23. “I was the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad.”

— Harriet Tubman

24. “God’s time is always near. He gave me my strength and he set the North Star in the heavens; He meant I should be free.”

— Harriet Tubman

25. “Quakers almost as good as colored. They call themselves friends and you can trust them every time.”

— Harriet Tubman

26. “I started with this idea in my head, “There’s two things I’ve got a right to, death or liberty.””

— Harriet Tubman

27. “Marcus Garvey had in their times. We just had a more vulnerable enemy.”

— Harriet Tubman

28. “I link dar’s many a slaveholder’ll git to Heaven. Dey don’t know no better. Dey acts up to de light dey hab.”

— Harriet Tubman

29. “Pears like I prayed all the time, ‘bout my work, everywhere, I prayed an’ groaned to the Lord.”

— Harriet Tubman

30. “There was one of two things I had a right to: liberty or death. If I could not have one, I would have the other; for now man should take me alive.”

— Harriet Tubman

31. “There was one of two things I had a right to: liberty or death. If I could not have one, I would take the other, for no man should take me alive. I should fight for liberty as long as my strength lasted.”

— Harriet Tubman

32. “In my mind, I see a line. And over that line, I see green fields and lovely flowers and beautiful white women with their arms stretched out to me over that line, but I can’t seem to get there no-how. I can’t seem to get over that line.”

— Harriet Tubman

33. “There was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death. If I could not have one, I would have the other, for no man should take me alive. I should fight for my liberty as my strength lasted, and when the time came for me to go, the Lord would let them take me.”

— Harriet Tubman