My whole life has largely been one of surprises.

An ounce of application is worth a ton of abstraction.

Success always leaves footprints.

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.

If you can't read, it's going to be hard to realize dreams.

Lay hold of something that will help you, and then use it to help somebody else.

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.