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

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

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

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.

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.

Knowledge is the prime need of the hour.

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