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A life is not worth much of which it cannot be said, when it comes to its close, that it was helpful to humanity.

Booker T. Washington

We all should rise, above the clouds of ignorance, narrowness, and selfishness.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Clouds Ignorance Selfishness
To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbor, I would say ‘Cast down your bucket where you are.’
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Men Race White
Dignify and glorify common labor. It is at the bottom of life that we must begin, not at the top.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Beginning Dignity Glorify Labor Life
The time will come when the Negro in the South will be accorded all the political rights which his ability, character, and material possessions entitle him to.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Ability Character Himself Politics Possession Right Time
A sure way for one to lift himself up is by helping to lift someone else.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Helping Lifts Way
Great men cultivate love, only little men cherish a spirit of hatred.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Cherish Cultivation Greatness Hate Love Spirit
An ounce of application is worth a ton of abstraction.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Application Clarity Communicate
No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Poem Prosperity Race Writing
Those who have accomplished the greatest results are those who never grow excited or lose self-control, but are always calm, self-possessed, patient and polite.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Accomplishment Greatness Patience Polite Result
The longer I live and the more experience I have of the world, the more I am convinced that, after all, the one thing that is most worth living for-and dying for, if need be-is the opportunity of making someone else more happy.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Dying Life Opportunity
The happiest people are those who do the most for others. The most miserable are those who do the least.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Happiness Less Misery People
Character, not circumstances, makes the man.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Character Circumstances Men
The longer I live and the more I study the question, the more I am convinced that it is not so much the problem of what you will do with Negro, as what the Negro will do with you and your ‘civilization’.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Civilization Problem Study
No man, who continues to add something to the material, intellectual and moral well-being of the place in which he lives, is left long without proper reward.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Humility Karma Life
Think about it: we went into slavery pagans; we came out Christians. We went into slavery pieces of property; we came out American citizens.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Christian Hands Thinking
In any country, regardless of what its laws say, wherever people act upon the idea that the disadvantage of one man is the good of another, there slavery exists.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Country Disadvantage Law Men People

A life is not worth much of which it cannot be said, when it comes to its close, that it was helpful to humanity.

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A life is not worth much of which it cannot be said, when it comes to its close, that it was helpful to humanity.

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