It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.

The worker must work for the glory of his handiwork, not simply for pay; the thinker must think for truth, not for fame.

Lord, make us mindful of the little things that grow and blossom in these days to make the world beautiful for us.

To stimulate wildly weak and untrained minds is to play with mighty fires.

If you want to feel humor too exquisite and subtle for translation, sit invisibly among a gang of Negro workers.

The cause of war is preparation for war.

Why did God make me an outcast and a stranger in mine own house? The shades of the prison-house closed round about us all: walls strait and stubborn to the whitest, but relentlessly narrow, tall, and unscalable to sons of night who must plod darkly on in resignation, or beat unavailing palms against the stone, or steadily, half hopelessly, watch the streak of blue above.