We must not only become reliable, progressive, skillful and intelligent, but we must keep the idea constantly before our youths that all forms of labor, whether with the hand or head, are honorable.

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

Lay hold of something that will help you, and then use it to help somebody else.

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

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.

Ignorance is more costly to any State than education.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.