“What you do today that is worthwhile, inspires others to act at some future time.”

To see your enemy and know him is a part of the complete education of man.

We must give up the silly idea of folding our hands and waiting on God to do everything for us. If God had intended for that, then he would not have given us a mind. Whatever you want in life, you must make up your mind to do it for yourself.

If the Negro is not careful he will drink in all the poison of modern civilization and die from the effects of it.

Intelligence rules the world, ignorance carries the burden.

Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm.

The whole world is run on bluff. No race, no nation, no man has any divine right to take advantage of others. Why allow the other fellow to bluff you?

Take advantage of every opportunity; where there is none, make it for yourself, and let history record that as we toiled laboriously and courageously, we worked to live gloriously.

At no time within the last five hundred years can one point to a single instance of the Negro as a race of haters.

You must not mistake lip service and noise for bravery and service.

If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life.

The history of a movement, the history of a nation, the history of a race is the guide-post of that movement’s destiny, that nation’s destiny, that race’s destiny.

I have no desire to take all black people back to Africa; there are blacks who are no good here and will likewise be no good there.

Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm, look for me all around you, for, with God’s grace, I shall come and bring with me countless millions of black slaves who have died in America.

A man’s bread and butter is only insured when he works for it.

If we as a people realized the greatness from which we came we would be less likely to disrespect ourselves.

A reading man and woman is a ready man and woman, but a writing man and woman are exact.

Many of the things that seem impossible now will become realities tomorrow.

The future promise of any nation can be directly measured by the present prospects of its youth.

Your own positive future begins in this moment. All you have is right now. Every goal is possible from here.

Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.

Whatever you think today becomes what you are tomorrow.

I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

You are free to choose, but the choices you make today will determine what you have, be, and do in the tomorrow of your life.