Booker T. Washington Quotes

1856-1915, American Black Leader and Educator
quotes
16
topics
12
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“Character is power.”
Character
“Character, not circumstances, makes the man.”
Verified"Democracy and Education", address at the Institute of Arts and Sciences, Brooklyn, New York (30 September 1896) · evidenceCharacter
“Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.”
Excellence
“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.”
Service
“You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.”
Brotherhood
“I will not permit any man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.”
Hatred
“There are two ways of exerting one's strength; one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.”
Strength
“There is no power on earth, that can neutralize the influence of a high, pure, simple and useful life.”
Verified"The Virtue of Simplicity," from Character Building: Being Addresses Delivered on Sunday Evenings to the Students of Tuskegee Institute (1902), p. 41 · evidenceInfluence
“We do not want the men of another color for our brothers-in-law, but we do want them for our brothers.”
Prejudice
“No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.”
VerifiedUp From Slavery (1901), Chapter XIV: The Atlanta Exposition Address · evidencePride
“The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what a man or woman is able to do that counts.”
Ability
“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which one has overcome while trying to succeed.”
Success
“No man who continues to add something to the material, intellectual, and moral well-being of the place in which he lives is long left without proper reward.”
VerifiedUp From Slavery (1901), Chapter XVI: Europe · evidenceRewards
“We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.”
Language
“Success in life is founded upon attention to the small things rather than to the large things; to the every day things nearest to us rather than to the things that are remote and uncommon.”
Things and Little Things
“I believe that any man's life will be filled with constant and unexpected encouragement, if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day, and as nearly as possible reaching the high water mark of pure and useful living.”
Encouragement