Mary McLeod Bethune Quotes

I plunged into the job of creating something from nothing.... Though I hadn't a penny left, I considered cash money as the smallest part of my resources. I had faith in a living God, faith in myself, and a desire to serve.

There is a place in God's sun for the youth "farthest down" who has the vision, the determination, and the courage to reach it.

Whatever glory belongs to the race for a development unprecedented in history for the given length of time, a full share belongs to the womanhood of the race.

If we have the courage and tenacity of our forebears, who stood firmly like a rock against the lash of slavery, we shall find a way to do for our day what they did for theirs.

Next to God we are indebted to women, first for life itself, and then for making it worth living.

I leave you love. I leave you hope. I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another. I leave you respect for the use of power. I leave you faith. I leave you racial dignity.

We live in a world which respects power above all things. Power, intelligently directed, can lead to more freedom. Unwisely directed, it can be a dreadful, destructive force.

Enter to learn; depart to serve.

You white folks have long been eating the white meat of the chicken. We Negroes are now ready for some of the white meat instead of the dark meat.

From the first, I made my learning, what little it was, useful every way I could.

If we accept and acquiesce in the face of discrimination, we accept the responsibility ourselves. We should, therefore, protest openly everything ... that smacks of discrimination or slander.

What does the Negro want? His answer is very simple. He wants only what all other Americans want. He wants opportunity to make real what the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the Bill of Rights say, what the Four Freedoms establish. While he knows these ideals are open to no man completely, he wants only his equal chance to obtain them.

To those of you with your years of service still ahead, the challenge is yours. Stop doubting yourselves. Have the courage to make up your minds and hold your decisions. Refuse to be BOUGHT for a nickel, or a million dollars, or a job!

I have had more than half a century of such happiness. A great deal of worry and sorrow, too, but never a worry or a sorrow that was not offset by a purple iris, a lark, a bluebird, or a dewy morning glory.

For I am my mother's daughter, and the drums of Africa still beat in my heart.

Knowledge is the prime need of the hour.

In each experience of my life, I have had to step out of one little space of the known light, into a large area of darkness. I had to stand awhile in the darkness, and then gradually God has given me light. But not to linger in. For as soon as that light has felt familiar, then the call has always come to step out ahead again into new darkness.

Cease to be a drudge, seek to be an artist.

I thought, maybe the difference between white folks and colored is just this matter of reading and writing. I made up my mind I would know my letters.

Believe in yourself, learn, and never stop wanting to build a better world.

Forgiving is not about forgetting, it's letting go of the hurt

Faith is the first factor in a life devoted to service. Without it, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible.

I do feel, in my dreamings and yearnings, so undiscovered by those who are able to help me.

[To the patronizing train conductor who had twice said, 'Auntie, give me your ticket':] Which of my sister's sons are you?

I never stop to plan. I take things step-by-step.

We have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends.

The whole world opened to me when I learned to read.

Whatever the white man has done, we have done, and often better.

The drums of Africa still beat in my heart. They will not let me rest while there is a single Negro boy or girl without a chance to prove his worth.

Greatness is largely a social accident, and almost always socially supported.

Studying goes deeper than mere reading. There are surface nuggets to be gathered but the best of the gold is underneath, and it takes time and labor to secure it.

Invest in the human soul. Who knows, it might be a diamond in the rough.

World peace and brotherhood are based on a common understanding of the contributions and cultures of all races and creeds

When they learn of Shakespeare and Goethe, we must teach them of Pushkin and Dumas. . . . Whatever the white man has done, we have done, and often better.

Education is the great American adventure, the world's most colossal democratic experiment.

The progress of the world will call for the best that all of us have to give.

The true worth of a race must be measured by the character of its womanhood.