I pity from the bottom of my heart any nation or body of people that is so unfortunate as to get entangled in the net of slavery.

Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.

We shall prosper as we learn to do the common things of life in an uncommon way. Let down your buckets where you are.

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

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.'

Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.

The actual sight of a first-class house that a Negro has built is ten times more potent than pages of discussion about a house that he ought to build, or perhaps could build.