No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.

You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.

The longer I live and the more I study the question, the more I am convinced that it is not so much the problem of what you will do with Negro, as what the Negro will do with you and your 'civilization'.

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.

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.

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.

Do not do that which others can do as well.