Every race and every nation should be judged by the best it has been able to produce, not by the worst.

Young man, young man, your arm's too short to box with God.

Nothing great or enduring, especially in music, has ever sprung full-fledged and unprecedented from the brain of any master; the best he gives to the world he gathers from the hearts of the people, and runs it through the alembic of his genius.

O Black and unknown bards of long ago, How came your lips to touch the sacred fire?

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.

Through my music teaching and my not absolutely irregular attendance at church, I became acquainted with the best class of colored people in Jacksonville.

...one of the best things about running is that no matter how fast you've run in the past, running fast in the future does not come easily or with any guarantees.