Political activity alone cannot make a man free. Back of the ballot, he must have property, industry, skill, economy, intelligence, and character.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTONI 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.
More Booker T. Washington Quotes
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We went into slavery with chains clanking about our wrists; we came out with the American ballot in our hands.
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In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.
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No white American ever thinks that any other race is wholly civilized until he wears the white man’s clothes, eats the white man’s food, speaks the white man’s language, and professes the white man’s religion.
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The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what the man or woman is able to do that counts.
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In the long run, the world is going to have the best, and any difference in race, religion, or previous history will not keep the world from what it wants.
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Ignorance is more costly to any State than education.
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There is no escape – man drags man down, or man lifts man up.
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I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.
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The circumstances that surround a man’s life are not important. How that man responds to those circumstances IS IMPORTANT. His response is the ultimate determining factor between success and failure.
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No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.
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I pity from the bottom of my heart any individual who is so unfortunate as to get into the habit of holding race prejudice, for nothing else makes one so blind and narrow.
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Dignify and glorify common labor. It is at the bottom of life that we must begin, not at the top.
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I shall never permit myself to stoop so low as to hate any man.
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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.’
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No white American ever thinks that any other race is wholly civilized until he wears the white man’s clothes, eats the white man’s food, speaks the white man’s language, and professes the white man’s religion.
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Decide to be your best. In the long run the world is going to want and have the best and that might as well be you.
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You can’t hold a man down without staying down with him.
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Men may make laws to hinder and fetter the ballot, but men cannot make laws that will bind or retard the growth of manhood.
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We all should rise, above the clouds of ignorance, narrowness, and selfishness.
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Let our opportunities overshadow our grievances.
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Success is not measured by where you are in life, but the obstacles you’ve over come.
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The highest test of the civilization of any race is in its willingness to extend a helping hand to the less fortunate.
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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.
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If you can’t read, it’s going to be hard to realize dreams.
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Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.
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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