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 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.
More W. E. B. Du Bois Quotes
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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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The worker must work for the glory of his handiwork, not simply for pay; the thinker must think for truth, not for fame.
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Begin with art, because art tries to take us outside ourselves. It is a matter of trying to create an atmosphere and context so conversation can flow back and forth and we can be influenced by each other.
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I insist that the object of all true education is not to make men carpenters, it is to make carpenters men.
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Education is that whole system of human training within and without the school house walls, which molds and develops men.
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The shadow of a mighty Negro past flits through the tale of Ethiopia the shadowy and of the Egypt the Sphinx. Throughout history, the powers of single blacks flash here and there like falling stars, and die sometimes before the world has rightly gauged their brightness.
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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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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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The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.
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A man does not look behind the door unless he has stood there himself.
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Race prejudice decreases values, both real estate and human.
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Lord, make us mindful of the little things that grow and blossom in these days to make the world beautiful for us.
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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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All womanhood is hampered today because the world on which it is emerging is a world that tries to worship both virgins and mothers and in the end despises motherhood and despoils virgins.
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The theory of democratic government is not that the will of the people is always right, but rather that normal human beings of average intelligence will, if given a chance, learn the right and best course by bitter experience.
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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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Life has its pains and evils-its bitter disappointments; but like a good novel and in healthful length of days, there is infinite joy in seeing the World, the most interesting of continued stories, unfold.
W. E. B. DU BOIS -
The 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 BOIS -
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.
W. E. B. DU BOIS -
To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.
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The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.
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The cause of war is preparation for war.
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The power of the ballot we need in sheer defense, else what shall save us from a second slavery?
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There can be no perfect democracy curtailed by color, race, or poverty. But with all we accomplish all, even peace.
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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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Would America have been America without her Negro people?
W. E. B. DU BOIS