A people may become great through many means, but there is only one measure by which its greatness is recognized and acknowledged. The final measure of the greatness of all peoples is the amount and standard of the literature and art they have produced.... No people that has produced great literature and art has ever been looked upon by the world as distinctly inferior.

The Southern whites are in many respects a great people. Looked at from a certain point of view, they are picturesque. If one will put oneself in a romantic frame of mind, one can admire their notions of chivalry and bravery and justice.

You are young, gifted, and Black. We must begin to tell our young, There's a world waiting for you, Yours is the quest that's just begun.

It is strange how in some things honest people can be dishonest without the slightest compunction.

There are a great many colored people who are ashamed of the cake-walk, but I think they ought to be proud of it.

I had enjoyed life in Paris, and, taking all things into consideration, enjoyed it wholesomely.

And so for a couple of years my life was divided between my music and my school books.