Booker T. Washington Quotes

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

There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.

The longer I live and the more experience I have of the world, the more I am convinced that, after all, the one thing that is most worth living for-and dying for, if need be-is the opportunity of making someone else more happy.

Remember that everyone's life is measured by the power that individual has to make the world better-this is all life is.

I never liked the atmosphere of Washington . I early saw that it was impossible to build up a race of which the leaders were spending most of their time, thought and energy in trying to get into office, or in trying to stay there after they were in.

The time will come when the Negro in the South will be accorded all the political rights which his ability, character, and material possessions entitle him to.

Those who have accomplished the greatest results are those...who never grow excited or lose self-control, but are always calm, self-possessed, patient and polite.

I pity from the bottom of my heart any individual who is so unfortunate as to get into the habit of holding race prejudice, for nothing else makes one so blind and narrow.

If no other consideration had convinced me of the value of the Christian life, the Christ like work which the Church of all denominations in America has done during the last 35 years for the elevation of the black man would have made me a Christian.

The individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in the end, make his way regardless of his race.

In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.

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

Every person who has grown to any degree of usefulness, every person who has grown to distinction, almost without exception has been a person who has risen by overcoming obstacles, by removing difficulties, by resolving that when he met discouragement he would not give up.

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.

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.

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

I let no man drag me down so low as to make me hate him.

The thing to do when one feels sure that he has said or done the right thing and is condemned, is to stand still and keep quiet. If he is right, time will show it.

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

By habits of thrift and economy, by way of the industrial school and college, we are coming up. We are crawling up, working up, yea, bursting up-often through oppression, unjust discrimination and prejudice-but through them all we are coming up, and with proper habits, intelligence, and property, there is no power on earth than can permanently stay our progress.

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

The man who has learned to do something better than anyone else, has learned to do a common thing in an uncommon manner, is the man who has a power and influence that no adverse circumstances can take from him.

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.

I early learned that it is a hard matter to convert an individual by abusing him, and that this is more often accomplished by giving credit for all the praiseworthy actions performed than by calling attention alone to all the evil done.

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

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

Men may make laws to hinder and fetter the ballot, but men cannot make laws that will bind or retard the growth of manhood.

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.

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.

The wisest among my race understand that agitations of social equality is the extremist folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing.

Let our opportunities overshadow our grievances.

Progress, progress is the law of nature; under God it shall be our eternal guiding star.

Of all forms of slavery there is none that is so harmful and degrading as that form of slavery which tempts one human being to hate another by reason of his race or color. One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him.

There is no power on earth that can neutralize the influence of a high, simple and useful life.

The circumstances that surround a man's life are not important. How that man responds to those circumstances IS IMPORTANT. His response is the ultimate determining factor between success and failure.

You must understand the troubles of that man farthest down before you can help him.

Never let your work drive you. Master it and keep it in complete control.

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.

It often requires more courage to suffer in silence than to rebel, more courage not to strike back than to retaliate, more courage to be silent than to speak.

No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.

Educated men and women, especially those who are in college, very often get the idea that religion is fit only for the common people. No young man or woman can make a greater error than this.

An ounce of application is worth a ton of abstraction.

Too often the educational value of doing well what is done, however little, is overlooked. One thing well done prepares the mind to do the next thing better. Not how much, but how well, should be the motto. One problem thoroughly understood is of more value than a score poorly mastered.

The longer I live and the more I study the question, the more I am convinced that it is not so much the problem of what you will do with Negro, as what the Negro will do with you and your 'civilization'.

Success waits patiently for anyone who has the determination and strength to seize it.

If you can't read, it's going to be hard to realize dreams.

Whenever your life touches mine, you make me stronger of weaker... there is no escape... people drag others or lift others up.

You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you have to overcome to reach your goals.