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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.

Booker T. Washington

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
If you truly want to measure the success of a man, you do not measure it by a position he has achieved, but by the obstacles he has overcome.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Achievement Himself Man Measurement Position Success True
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
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

Alone Character Economy Freedom Intelligence Man Politics Skills
We all should rise, above the clouds of ignorance, narrowness, and selfishness.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Ignorance Narrow Rise Selfish
The time will come when the Negro in the South will be accorded all the political rights which his ability, character, and material possessions entitle him to.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Ability Character Himself Politics Possession Right Time
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
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

Learning Life Prosperity Way Yourself
No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Contribution Degree Market Race
Educated men and women, especially those who are in college, very often get the idea that religion is fit only for the common people. No young man or woman can make a greater error than this.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

College Education Errors Man Religion Woman
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
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
Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Exception Hard Work Result Worth
The longer I live and the more experience I have of the world, the more I am convinced that, after all, the one thing that is most worth living for-and dying for, if need be-is the opportunity of making someone else more happy.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Death Experience Live Myself Opportunity World Worth
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
You go to school, you study about the Germans and the French, but not about your own race. I hope the time will come when you study black history too.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Black Ethnic History Myself Race Time
Lay hold of something that will help you, and then use it to help somebody else.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Generosity Help Hold Kindness
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
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

Civilization Man Race Religion Thinking White
My whole life has largely been one of surprises.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Life Oneself Surprise
I 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.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Believe Life Live Man Possible Purity
Mere connection with what is known as a superior race will not permanently carry an individual forward unless the individual has worth.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Carry Connection Race Superior Worth
We do not want the men of another color for our brothers-in-law, but we do want them for our brothers.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Brother Color Man
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

Beat Borrow Language Occasion Vocabulary Word
There are two ways of exerting one’s strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Oneself Strength Way
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.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Best Decision World Yourself
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

Accomplishment Greatness Patience Polite Result

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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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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Popular Authors

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