Progress, progress is the law of nature; under God it shall be our eternal guiding star.

Dignify and glorify common labor. It is at the bottom of life that we must begin, not at the top.

The thing to do when one feels sure that he has said or done the right thing and is condemned, is to stand still and keep quiet. If he is right, time will show it.

To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbor, I would say 'Cast down your bucket where you are.'

There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.

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

I learned the lesson that great men cultivate love, and that only little men cherish a spirit of hatred. I resolved then that I would permit no man, no matter what his color, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.