black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

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.

Booker T. Washington

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
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.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Ideas People Succeed
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.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Learning Measurement Myself Position Success
We shall prosper as we learn to do the common things of life in an uncommon way. Let down your buckets where you are.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Buckets Common Way
There is no escape – man drags man down, or man lifts man up.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Escape Help Man
I let no man drag me down so low as to make me hate him.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Hate Himself Low Man Myself
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.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Courage Rebel Silence Suffering
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
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
Ignorance is more costly to any State than education.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Cost Education Ignorance Price State
It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercise of those privileges.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Exercise Important Law
Great men cultivate love, only little men cherish a spirit of hatred.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Cherish Cultivation Greatness Hate Love Spirit
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 thing to do when one feels sure that he has said or done the right thing and is condemned, is to stand still and keep quiet. If he is right, time will show it.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Done Quiet Said
Never let your work drive you. Master it and keep it in complete control.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Complete Control Drive Master Work
Let our opportunities overshadow our grievances.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Grief Opportunity Ourselves Shadow
Even where he has the least education and the least encouragement, is incomparably better than the condition and opportunities of the agricultural population in Sicily.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Agricultural Condition Incomparably Population Sicily
Start where you are with what you have, knowing that what you have is plenty enough.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Enough Start Yourself
Leaders have devoted themselves to politics, little knowing, it seems that political independence disappears without economic independence that economic independence is the foundation of political independence.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Devotion Foundation Independence Leadership Politics
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.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Essential Progress Purity Separate
Success always leaves footprints.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Country Footprint People Success
It means a great deal, I think, to start off on a foundation which one has made for oneself.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Deal Foundation Greatness Myself Start Thinking
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

Inspirational Work Writing
You can’t hold a man down without staying down with him.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Himself Hold Man Stay
You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you have to overcome to reach your goals.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Inspirational Motivational Success
The highest test of the civilization of any race is in its willingness to extend a helping hand to the less fortunate.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Civilization Fortunate Hands Help Race Test Willing
If I have done anything in life worth attention, I feel sure that I inherited the disposition from my mother.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Attention Feeling Inheritance Life Mom Myself Worth

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Booker T. Washington Quotes