Booker T. Washington Quotes

The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what the man or woman is able to do that counts.

We must reinforce argument with results.

The negro has within him immense power for self-uplifting, but for years it will be necessary to guide and stimulate him.

Do not do that which others can do as well.

My whole life has largely been one of surprises.

Dignify and glorify common labor. It is at the bottom of life that we must begin, not at the top.

There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.

A sure way for one to lift himself up is by helping to lift someone else.

We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

A life is not worth much of which it cannot be said, when it comes to its close, that it was helpful to humanity.

Let us keep before us the fact that, almost without exception, every race or nation that has ever got upon its feet has done so through struggle and trial and persecution; and that out of this very resistance to wrong, out of the struggle against odds, they have gained strength, self-confidence, and experience which they could not have gained in any other way.

Don't ever let them pull you down so low as to hate them. (also cited as: I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.)

Most leaders spend time trying to get others to think highly of them, when instead they should try to get their people to think more highly of themselves. It's wonderful when the people believe in their leader. It's more wonderful when the leader believes in their people! You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.

Think about it: we went into slavery pagans; we came out Christians. We went into slavery pieces of property; we came out American citizens. We went into slavery with chains clanking about our wrists; we came out with the American ballot in our hands.

I learned the lesson that great men cultivate love, and that only little men cherish a spirit of hatred. I resolved then that I would permit no man, no matter what his color, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.

Great men cultivate love...only little men cherish a spirit of hatred

Each one should remember there is a chance for him.

To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbor, I would say 'Cast down your bucket where you are.'

No greater injury can be done to any youth than to let him feel that because he belongs to this or that race he will be advanced in life regardless of his own merits or efforts.

A race, like an individual, lifts itself up by lifting others up.

There is no defense or security for any of us except in the highest intelligence and development of all.

Character is power.

In my contact with people, I find that, as a rule, it is only the little, narrow people who live for themselves, who never read good books, who do not travel, who never open up their souls in a way to permit them to come into contact with other souls – with the great outside world.

Political activity alone cannot make a man free. Back of the ballot, he must have property, industry, skill, economy, intelligence, and character.

If you truly want to measure the success of a man, you do not measure it by a position he has achieved, but by the obstacles he has overcome.

You may fill your heads with knowledge or skillfully train your hands, but unless it is based upon high, upright character, upon a true heart, it will amount to nothing. You will be no better than the most ignorant.

Start where you are with what you have, knowing that what you have is plenty enough.

We do not want the men of another color for our brothers-in-law, but we do want them for our brothers.

Success in life is founded upon attention to the small things rather than to the large things; to the every day things nearest to us rather than to the things that are remote and uncommon.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

I shall never permit myself to stoop so low as to hate any man.

Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.

We shall prosper as we learn to do the common things of life in an uncommon way. Let down your buckets where you are.

Holding a grudge does not hurt the person against whom the grudge is held, it hurts the one who holds it.

At the bottom of education, at the bottom of politics, even at the bottom of religion, there must be for our race economic independence.

Ignorance is more costly to any State than education.

We must not only become reliable, progressive, skillful and intelligent, but we must keep the idea constantly before our youths that all forms of labor, whether with the hand or head, are honorable.

Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.

In order to be successful in any undertaking, I think the main thing is for one to grow to the point where he completely forgets himself; that is, to lose himself in a great cause. In proportion as one loses himself in this way, in the same degree does he get the highest happiness out of his work.

I believe that one always does himself and his audience an injustice when he speaks merely for the sake of speaking. I do not believe that one should speak unless, deep down in his heart, he feels convinced that he has a message to deliver.

If I have done anything in life worth attention, I feel sure that I inherited the disposition from my mother.

No white American ever thinks that any other race is wholly civilized until he wears the white man’s clothes, eats the white man’s food, speaks the white man’s language, and professes the white man’s religion.

Decide to be your best. In the long run the world is going to want and have the best and that might as well be you.

Living is the art of loving. Loving is the art of caring. Caring is the art of sharing. Sharing is the art of living. If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.

I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.

Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.

Many strikes and similar disturbances might be avoided if the employers would cultivate the habit of getting nearer to their employees, of consulting and advising with them, and letting them feel that the interests of the two are the same.

In proportion as one renders service he becomes great.