One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with 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.

Had (I) been a member of a more popular race, I should have been inclined to yield to the temptation of depending upon my ancestry and my colour to do that for me which I should do for myself. Years ago I resolved that because I had no ancestry myself I would leave a record of which my children would be proud, and which might encourage them to still higher effort

You may fill your heads with knowledge or skillfully train your hands, but unless it is based upon high, upright character, upon a true heart, it will amount to nothing. You will be no better than the most ignorant.

A life is not worth much of which it cannot be said, when it comes to its close, that it was helpful to humanity.

Mere connection with what is known as a superior race will not permanently carry an individual forward unless the individual has worth.

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