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

Booker T. Washington

I think I have learned that the best way to lift one’s self up is to help someone else.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Help Learning Lift Myself Thinking Way
Great men cultivate love and only little men cherish a spirit of hatred; assistance given to the weak makes the one who gives it strong; oppression of the unfortunate makes one weak.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Cherish Cultivation Greatness Love Strong Weakness
If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Inspirational Life Motivational
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 Myself Return Slave
Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Compassion Happiness Helping Others
An ounce of application is worth a ton of abstraction.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Abstraction Application Practical
I believe that my race will succeed in proportion as it learns to do a common thing in an uncommon manner; learns to do a thing so thoroughly that no one can improve upon what it has done; learns to make its services of indispensable value.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Believe Done Race
There is no escape – man drags man down, or man lifts man up.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Escape Help Man
I would permit no man, no matter what his colour might be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Color Hate Himself Man Soul
Progress, progress is the law of nature; under God it shall be our eternal guiding star.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Law Progress Stars
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
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

Black History Hands Kwanzaa
My whole life has largely been one of surprises.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Life Oneself Surprise
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
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 world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what the man or woman is able to do that counts.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Inspirational Knowledge Wisdom
We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Communication Pockets Vocabulary
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
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.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Care Count Man Woman World
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
Lay hold of something that will help you, and then use it to help somebody else.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Generosity Help Hold Kindness
Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Common Excellence Way
Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Help Himself Place Responsibility Trust Yourself
At the bottom of education, at the bottom of politics, even at the bottom of religion, there must be for our race economic independence.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Economic Education Independence Politics Race Religion
If you can’t read, it’s going to be hard to realize dreams.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Dreams Hard Reading Realization
No one can degrade us except ourselves.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Exception Ourselves Validation Value
The wisest among my race understand that agitations of social equality is the extremist folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Progress Race Struggle

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

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

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