Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise. At no other time have I so sharp an understanding of what God means to do with me as in these hours of dawn.

I went to the trash pile at Tuskegee Institute and started my laboratory with bottles, old fruit jars and any other thing I found I could use. ... [The early efforts were] worked out almost wholly on top of my flat topped writing desk and with teacups, glasses, bottles and reagents I made myself.

You can't teach people anything. You can only draw out.

He who puts a product upon the market as it demands, controls that market, regardless of color. It is simply a survival of the fittest.

I believe that the great Creator has put ores and oil on this Earth to give us a breathing spell ... as we exhaust them, we must be prepared to fall back on our farms, which are God's true storehouse. We can learn to synthesize materials for every human need from things that grow.

There is no short cut to achievement. Life requires thorough preparation - veneer isn't worth anything.

I know of nothing more inspiring than that of making discoveries for ones self.