Ignorance is more costly to any State than education.

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

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

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.'

It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercise of those privileges.

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.

In order to be successful in any undertaking, I think the main thing is for one to grow to the point where he completely forgets himself; that is, to lose himself in a great cause. In proportion as one loses himself in this way, in the same degree does he get the highest happiness out of his work.