Character is power.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTONCharacter is power.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTONThere are two ways of exerting one’s strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTONThe 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. WASHINGTONYou must understand the troubles of that man farthest down before you can help him.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTONThose 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. WASHINGTONNo one can degrade us except ourselves.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTONI would permit no man, no matter what his colour might be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTONWe 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. WASHINGTONWe 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. WASHINGTONNo man, who continues to add something to the material, intellectual and moral well-being of the place in which he lives, is left long without proper reward.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTONThe negro has within him immense power for self-uplifting, but for years it will be necessary to guide and stimulate him.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTONNo 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. WASHINGTONOne man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTONThink about it: we went into slavery pagans; we came out Christians. We went into slavery pieces of property; we came out American citizens.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTONMy whole life has largely been one of surprises.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTONI shall never permit myself to stoop so low as to hate any man.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON