But art is not simply works of art; it is the spirit that knows Beauty, that has music in its soul and the color of sunsets in its headkerchiefs; that can dance on a flaming world and make the world dance, too.
W. E. B. DU BOISI insist that the object of all true education is not to make men carpenters, it is to make carpenters men.
More W. E. B. Du Bois Quotes
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The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line, — the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea.
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The kind of sermon which is preached in most colored churches is not today attractive to even fairly intelligent men.
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Nothing in the world is easier in the United States than to accuse a black man of crime.
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It is the wind and the rain, O God, the cold and the storm that make this earth of yours to blossom and bear its fruit. So in our lives it is storm and stress and hurt and suffering that make real men and women bring the world’s work to its highest perfection.
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I believe that all men, black and brown, and white, are brothers, varying, through Time and Opportunity, in form and gift and feature, but differing in no essential particular, and alike in soul and in the possibility of infinite development.
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Strive for that greatness of spirit that measures life not by its disappointments but by its possibilities.
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Race prejudice decreases values, both real estate and human.
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One ever feels his twoness – an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.
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When in this world a man comes forward with a thought, a deed, a vision, we ask not how does he look, but what is his message? The world still wants to ask that a woman primarily be pretty.
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The future woman must have a life work and economic independence. She must have the right of motherhood at her own discretion.
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One thing alone I charge you. As you live, believe in life! Always human beings will live and progress to greater, broader and fuller life. The only possible death is to lose belief in this truth simply because the great end comes slowly, because time is long.
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A man does not look behind the door unless he has stood there himself.
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A classic is a book that doesn’t have to be written again.
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Whiteness is ownership of the earth.
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When in this world a man comes forward with a thought, a deed, a vision, we ask not how does he look, but what is his message? The world still wants to ask that a woman primarily be pretty.
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The music of an unhappy people, of the children of disappointment; they tell of death and suffering and unvoiced longing toward a truer world, of misty wanderings and hidden ways.
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We must complain. Yes, plain, blunt complaint, ceaseless agitation, unfailing exposure of dishonesty and wrong – this is the ancient, unerring way to liberty and we must follow it.
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There is no force equal to a woman determined to rise.
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The time must come when, great and pressing as change and betterment may be, they do not involve killing and hurting people.
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I believe in pride of race and lineage and self: in pride of self so deep as to scorn injustice to other selves.
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The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.
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The return from your work must be the satisfaction which that work brings you and the world’s need of that work. With this, life is heaven, or as near heaven as you can get. Without this – with work which you despise, which bores you, and which the world does not need – this life is hell.
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Whether you like it or not the millions are here, and here they will remain. If you do not lift them up, they will pull you down… Education must not simply teach work – it must teach life.
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I am especially glad of the divine gift of laughter: it has made the world human and lovable, despite all its pain and wrong.
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As Negro voting increased, Congress got an improved sense of hearing.
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I most sincerely doubt if any other race of women could have brought its fineness up through so devilish a fire.
W. E. B. DU BOIS