You are not judged by the height you have risen, but from the depth you have climbed.

What I ask for the Negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice.

My theory of self-made men is, then, simply this; that they are men of work. Whether or not such men have acquired material, moral or intellectual excellence, honest labor faithfully, steadily and persistently pursued, is the best, if not the only, explanation of their success... All human experience proves over and over again, that any success which comes through meanness, trickery, fraud and dishonour, is but emptiness and will only be a torment to its possessor.

I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine.

Heaven's blessing must attend all, and freedom must soon be given to the pining millions under a ruthless bondage.

A man who will enslave his own blood, may not be safely relied on for magnamity.

A man's rights rest in three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box.