“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.”

Character is power.

Each one should remember there is a chance for him.

I think I have learned that the best way to lift one’s self up is to help someone else.

Progress, progress is the law of nature; under God it shall be our eternal guiding star.

Start where you are with what you have, knowing that what you have is plenty enough.

You must understand the troubles of that man farthest down before you can help him.

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.

Study the past if you would define the future.

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

The things that have been most valuable to me I did not learn in school.

Learning gives creativity. Creativity leads to thinking. Thinking provides knowledge. Knowledge makes you great.

The past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it.

In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest where no-one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art.

Reading makes all other learning possible. We have to get books into our children’s hands early and often.

In my walks, every man I meet is my superior in some way, and in that I learn from him.