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No one can degrade us except ourselves.

Booker T. Washington

Not how much, but how well, should be the motto. One problem thoroughly understood is of more value than a score poorly mastered.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Mastered Problem Score Understand
There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Class Jobs Race
Years ago I resolved that because I had no ancestry myself I would leave a record of which my children would be proud, and which might encourage them to still higher effort
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Ancestry Children Effort Higher Leave Proud
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 Problem Study
You must understand the troubles of that man farthest down before you can help him.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Help Himself Man Trouble Understand
An ounce of application is worth a ton of abstraction.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Application Clarity Communicate
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
The older I grow, the more I am convinced that there is no education which one can get from books and costly apparatus that is equal to that which can be gotten from contact with great men and women.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Education Greatness Growth Man Old Woman
One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Down Man One Remaining
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
There is no power on earth that can neutralize the influence of a high, simple and useful life.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Earth Influence Life Power Simplicity
We must not only become reliable, progressive, skillful and intelligent, but we must keep the idea constantly before our youths that all forms of labor, whether with the hand or head, are honorable.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Hands Ideas Intelligent
Holding a grudge does not hurt the person against whom the grudge is held, it hurts the one who holds it.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Hold Hurt Oneself Person
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

Attention Life Remote Small Success
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
Start where you are with what you have, knowing that what you have is plenty enough.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Enough Start Yourself

No one can degrade us except ourselves.

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No one can degrade us except ourselves.

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