Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

The actual sight of a first-class house that a Negro has built is ten times more potent than pages of discussion about a house that he ought to build, or perhaps could build.

I pity from the bottom of my heart any nation or body of people that is so unfortunate as to get entangled in the net of slavery.

Ignorance is more costly to any State than education.

No man, who continues to add something to the material, intellectual and moral well-being of the place in which he lives, is left long without proper reward.

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