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.

We all should rise, above the clouds of ignorance, narrowness, and selfishness.

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

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.

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.

You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you have to overcome to reach your goals.

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