My whole life has largely been one of surprises.

In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.

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

Whenever your life touches mine, you make me stronger of weaker... there is no escape... people drag others or lift others up.

The circumstances that surround a man's life are not important. How that man responds to those circumstances IS IMPORTANT. His response is the ultimate determining factor between success and failure.

Men may make laws to hinder and fetter the ballot, but men cannot make laws that will bind or retard the growth of manhood.

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.