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Booker T. Washington Quotes

Total quotes: 22
“It means a great deal, I think, to start off on a foundation which one has made for oneself.”
— Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery(Dover Thrift Editions)
Tagged: Self-Esteem, Self-Made, Self-Reliance
“I have begun everything with the idea that I could succeed, and I never had much patience with the multitudes of people who are always ready to explain why one cannot succeed.”
— Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery(Dover Thrift Editions)
Tagged: Success, Optimism, Patience, Naysayers
“No white American ever thinks that any other race is wholly civilized until he wears the white man’s clothes, eats the white man’s food, speaks the white man’s language, and professes the white man’s religion.”
— Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery(Dover Thrift Editions)
Tagged: White People, White Americans, White Man, Anti-white Rhetoric
“The happiest people are those who do the most for others. The most miserable are those who do the least.”
— Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery(Dover Thrift Editions)
Tagged: Happiness, Miserable, Helping Others
“We all should rise, above the clouds of ignorance, narrowness, and selfishness.”
— Booker T. Washington, An Autobiography: The Story of My Life and Work
Tagged: Ignorance, Narrowness, selfishness, rise, Rise Above
“I would permit no man, no matter what his color might be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.”
— Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery(Dover Thrift Editions)
Tagged: Hatred, bigotry, skin color
“It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercise of those privileges.”
— Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery(Dover Thrift Editions)
Tagged: Privileges, Law
“Great men cultivate love and only little men cherish a spirit of hatred; assistance given to the weak makes the one who gives it strong; oppression of the unfortunate makes one weak.”
— Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery(Dover Thrift Editions)
Tagged: Great Men, Love, Hatred, Oppression, charity
“I make it a rule never to let my work drive me, but to so master it, and keep it in such complete control, and to keep so far ahead of it, that I will be the master instead of the servant.”
— Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery
Tagged: Life
“The individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in the end, make him way regardless of race.”
— Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery
Tagged: Life
“The great human law that in the end recognizes and rewards merit is everlasting and universal.”
— Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery
Tagged: Life
“No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized.”
— Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery
Tagged: Life
“The wisest among my race understand that agitations of social equality is the extremist folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing.”
— Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery(Dover Thrift Editions)
Tagged: Wisdom, social equality, Privileges, Struggle
“I early learned that it is a hard matter to convert an individual by abusing him, and that this is more often accomplished by giving credit for all the praiseworthy actions performed than by calling attention alone to all the evil done.”
— Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery(Dover Thrift Editions)
Tagged: Conversion, Browbeating, Credit, Evil
“In order to be successful in any undertaking, I think the main thing is for one to grow to the point where he completely forgets himself; that is, to lose himself in a great cause. In proportion as one loses himself in this way, in the same degree does he get the highest happiness out of his work.”
— Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery(Dover Thrift Editions)
Tagged: Success, losing oneself, Happiness
“In my contact with people, I find that, as a rule, it is only the little, narrow people who live for themselves, who never read good books, who do not travel, who never open up their souls in a way to permit them to come into contact with other souls—with the great outside world.”
— Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery(Dover Thrift Editions)
Tagged: Reading, Reaching Out
“Credit is capital.”
— Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery
Tagged: Life
“I believe that any man's life will be filled with constant, unexpected encouragements of this kind if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day of his life–that is, tries to make each day reach as nearly as possible the high-water mark of pure, unselfish, useful living.”
— Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery
Tagged: Life
“Among a large class, there seemed to be a dependence upon the government for every conceivable thing. The members of this class had little ambition to create a position for themselves, but wanted the federal officials to create one for them. How many times I wished then and have often wished since, that by some power of magic, I might remove the great bulk of these people into the country districts and plant them upon the soil—upon the solid and never deceptive foundation of Mother Nature, where all nations and races that have ever succeeded have gotten their start—a start that at first may be slow and toilsome, but one that nevertheless is real.”
— Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery(Dover Thrift Editions)
Tagged: Government, Slavery, Magic, Mother Nature
“When I begin my work in the morning, I expect to have a successful and pleasant day of it, but at the same time I prepare myself for unpleasant and unexpected hard places. I prepare myself to hear that one of our school buildings is on fire, or has burned, or that some disagreeable accident has occurred, or that someone has abused me in a public address or printed article, for something that I have done or omitted to do, or for something that he had heard that I had said–probably something that I had never thought of saying.”
— Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery
Tagged: Obstacles
“I am often asked how, in the midst of so much work, a large part of which is before the public, I can find time for any rest or recreation, and what kind of recreation or sports I am fond of. This is rather a difficult question to answer. I have a strong feeling that every individual owes it to himself, and to the cause which he is serving, to keep a vigorous, healthy body, with the nerves steady and strong, prepared for great efforts and prepared for disappointments and trying positions.”
— Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery
Tagged: Life
“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed. Looked at from this standpoint, I almost reached the conclusion that often the Negro boy's birth and connection with an unpopular race is an advantage so far as real life is concerned. With few exceptions, the Negro youth must work harder and must perform his tasks even better than a white youth in order to secure recognition. But out of the hard and unusual struggle through which he is compelled to pass, he gets strength, a confidence, that one misses whose pathway is comparatively smooth by reason of birth and race. ”
— Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery
Tagged: Obstacles
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