“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’.”

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.