I would permit no man, no matter what his colour might be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.

You go to school, you study about the Germans and the French, but not about your own race. I hope the time will come when you study black history too.

I believe that my race will succeed in proportion as it learns to do a common thing in an uncommon manner; learns to do a thing so thoroughly that no one can improve upon what it has done; learns to make its services of indispensable value.

An inch of progress is worth more than a yard of complaint.

It means a great deal, I think, to start off on a foundation which one has made for oneself.

Never get to the point where you will be ashamed to ask anybody for information. The ignorant man will always be ignorant if he fears that by asking another for information he will display ignorance. Better once display your ignorance of a certain subject than always know nothing of it.

Success is not measured by where you are in life, but the obstacles you've over come