Herein lies the tragedy of the age: Not that men are poor, – all men know something of poverty. Not that men are wicked, – who is good? Not that men are ignorant, – what is truth? Nay, but that men know so little of men.
W. E. B. DU BOISHerein lies the tragedy of the age: Not that men are poor, – all men know something of poverty. Not that men are wicked, – who is good? Not that men are ignorant, – what is truth? Nay, but that men know so little of men.
W. E. B. DU BOISStrive for that greatness of spirit that measures life not by its disappointments but by its possibilities.
W. E. B. DU BOISEducation must not simply teach work-it must teach life.
W. E. B. DU BOISOne 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.
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.
W. E. B. DU BOISThe worker must work for the glory of his handiwork, not simply for pay; the thinker must think for truth, not for fame.
W. E. B. DU BOISThe power of the ballot we need in sheer defense, else what shall save us from a second slavery?
W. E. B. DU BOISThe favorite device of the devil, ancient and modern, is to force a human being into a more or less artificial class, accuse the class of unnamed and unnameable sin, and then damn any individual in the alleged class, however innocent he may be.
W. E. B. DU BOISTo be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.
W. E. B. DU BOISBut 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 BOISThe emancipation of man is the emancipation of labor and the emancipation of labor is the freeing of that basic majority of workers who are yellow, brown and black.
W. E. B. DU BOISThe future woman must have a life work and economic independence. She must have the right of motherhood at her own discretion.
W. E. B. DU BOISThe time must come when, great and pressing as change and betterment may be, they do not involve killing and hurting people.
W. E. B. DU BOISViolence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms.
W. E. B. DU BOISThe time must come when, great and pressing as change and betterment may be, they do not involve killing and hurting people.
W. E. B. DU BOISNothing in the world is easier in the United States than to accuse a black man of crime.
W. E. B. DU BOIS