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You can’t hold a man down without staying down with him.

Booker T. Washington

Men may make laws to hinder and fetter the ballot, but men cannot make laws that will bind or retard the growth of manhood.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Growth Law Man Stop
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.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Architect Build Discussion Home Sight Strong
I let no man drag me down so low as to make me hate him.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Hate Himself Low Man Myself
Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Countries People Some Jobs Wants
Not how much, but how well, should be the motto. One problem thoroughly understood is of more value than a score poorly mastered.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Mastered Problem Score Understand
Never let your work drive you. Master it and keep it in complete control.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Complete Control Drive Master Work
I think I have learned, in some degree at least, to disregard the old maxim “”Do not get others to do what you can do yourself.”” My motto on the other hand is; “”Do not do that which others can do as well.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Affirmation Learning Myself Thinking
No one can degrade us except ourselves.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Exception Ourselves Validation Value
I early learned that it is a hard matter to convert an individual by abusing him, and that this is more often accomplished by giving credit for all the praiseworthy actions performed than by calling attention alone to all the evil done.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Attention Evil Giving
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.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Book Equal Men
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

Help Humanity Life Worth
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 Live Problem Question Study
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
From some things that I have said one may get the idea that some of the slaves did not want freedom. This is not true. I have never seen one who did not want to be free, or one who would return to slavery.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Freedom Ideas Return Slavery
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
If you can’t read, it’s going to be hard to realize dreams.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Dreams Hard Reading Realization
Success is not measured by where you are in life, but the obstacles you’ve over come.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Life Measurement Obstacle Success Yourself
An inch of progress is worth more than a yard of complaint.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Complain Value Worth
You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you have to overcome to reach your goals.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Accomplishment Goal Measurement Obstacle Reach
Character, not circumstances, makes the man.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Character Circumstances Men
In proportion as one renders service he becomes great.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Generosity Himself Preparation Service
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.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Food Men Thinking
Years ago I resolved that because I had no ancestry myself I would leave a record of which my children would be proud, and which might encourage them to still higher effort
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Ancestry Children Effort Higher Leave Proud
Many strikes and similar disturbances might be avoided if the employers would cultivate the habit of getting nearer to their employees, of consulting and advising with them, and letting them feel that the interests of the two are the same.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Habit might Two
We must not only become reliable, progressive, skillful and intelligent, but we must keep the idea constantly before our youths that all forms of labor, whether with the hand or head, are honorable.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Hands Ideas Intelligent
Political activity alone cannot make a man free. Back of the ballot, he must have property, industry, skill, economy, intelligence, and character.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Character Men Skill
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

Calm Greatest Patient Possession Self

You can’t hold a man down without staying down with him.

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You can’t hold a man down without staying down with him.

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