“The older I grow, the more I am convinced that there is no education which one can get from books and costly apparatus that is equal to that which can be gotten from contact with great men and women.”

Lay hold of something that will help you, and then use it to help somebody else.

It often requires more courage to suffer in silence than to rebel, more courage not to strike back than to retaliate, more courage to be silent than to speak.

If you can’t read, it’s going to be hard to realize dreams.

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.

I have begun everything with the idea that I could succeed, and I never had much patience with the multitudes of people who are always ready to explain why one cannot succeed.

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.

You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you have to overcome to reach your goals.

Great men cultivate love, only little men cherish a spirit of hatred.

No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized.

The actual sight of a first-class house that a Negro has built is ten times more potent than pages of discussion about a house that he ought to build, or perhaps could build.

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.

The happiest people are those who do the most for others. The most miserable are those who do the least.

No one can degrade us except ourselves.

We do not want the men of another color for our brothers-in-law, but we do want them for our brothers.

I shall never permit myself to stoop so low as to hate any man.

There are two ways of exerting one’s strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.

The giving of love is an education in itself.

The teaching is simple. Do what is right. Be Pure.

In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made school boards.

I always thought the idea of education was to learn to think for yourself.

I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from my mom.

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.

Whether one is rich or poor, educated or illiterate, religious or nonbelieving, man or woman, black, white, or brown, we are all the same.

Talent is like electricity. We don’t understand electricity. We use it.