Booker T. Washington

We do not want the men of another color for our brothers-in-law, but we do want them for our brothers.

— Booker T. Washington

At the bottom of education, at the bottom of politics, even at the bottom of religion, there must be for our race economic independence.

— Booker T. Washington

There is no power on earth that can neutralize the influence of a high, simple and useful life.

— Booker T. Washington

The individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in the end, make his way regardless of his race.

— Booker T. Washington

Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

— Booker T. Washington

At the bottom of education, at the bottom of politics, even at the bottom of religion, there must be for our race economic independence.

— Booker T. Washington

A lie doesn't become truth, wrong doesn't become right, and evil doesn't become good, just because it's accepted by a majority.

— Booker T. Washington

I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.

— Booker T. Washington

Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

— Booker T. Washington

At the bottom of education, at the bottom of politics, even at the bottom of religion, there must be for our race economic independence.

— Booker T. Washington

We do not want the men of another color for our brothers-in-law, but we do want them for our brothers.

— Booker T. Washington

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

— Booker T. Washington

I think I have learned that the best way to lift one's self up is to help someone else.

— Booker T. Washington

There is no power on earth, that can neutralize the influence of a high, pure, simple and useful life.

— Booker T. Washington

The world cares very little what you or I know, but it does care a great deal about what you or I do.

— Booker T. Washington

Of all forms of slavery there is none that is so harmful and degrading as that form of slavery which tempts one human being to hate another by reason of his race or color. One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him.

— Booker T. Washington

If you can't read, it's going to be hard to realize dreams.

— Booker T. Washington

In any country, regardless of what its laws say, wherever people act upon the idea that the disadvantage of one man is the good of another, there slavery exists. Wherever, in any country the whole people feel that the happiness of all is dependent upon the happiness of the weakest, there freedom exists.

— Booker T. Washington

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.

— Booker T. Washington

There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.

— Booker T. Washington

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.

— Booker T. Washington

There is no escape — man drags man down, or man lifts man up.

— Booker T. Washington

Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.

— Booker T. Washington

You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.

— Booker T. Washington

Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.

— Booker T. Washington

At the bottom of education, at the bottom of politics, even at the bottom of religion, there must be for our race economic independence.

— Booker T. Washington

From some things that I have said one may get the idea that some of the slaves did not want freedom. This is not true. I have never seen one who did not want to be free, or one who would return to slavery.

— Booker T. Washington

Character is power.

— Booker T. Washington

I learned the lesson that great men cultivate love, and that only little men cherish a spirit of hatred. I learned that assistance given to the weak makes the one who gives it strong; and that oppression of the unfortunate makes one weak.

— Booker T. Washington

There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.

— Booker T. Washington

I would permit no man, no matter what his colour might be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.

— Booker T. Washington

Success in life is founded upon attention to the small things rather than to the large things; to the every day things nearest to us rather than to the things that are remote and uncommon.

— Booker T. Washington

Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him.

— Booker T. Washington

No greater injury can be done to any youth than to let him feel that because he belongs to this or that race he will be advanced in life regardless of his own merits or efforts.

— Booker T. Washington

Nothing ever comes to me, that is worth having, except as the result of hard work.

— Booker T. Washington

One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him.

— Booker T. Washington

Cast down your bucket where you are.

— Booker T. Washington

If you can't read, it's going to be hard to realize dreams.

— Booker T. Washington

In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.

— Booker T. Washington

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 had to overcome while trying to succeed.

— Booker T. Washington

No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top.

— Booker T. Washington

We must reinforce argument with results.

— Booker T. Washington

No man who continues to add something to the material, intellectual, and moral well-being of the place in which he lives is long left without proper reward.

— Booker T. Washington

No man, who continues to add something to the material, intellectual and moral well-being of the place in which he lives, is left long without proper reward.

— Booker T. Washington

My whole life has largely been one of surprises. 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

To hold a man down, you have to stay down with him.

— Booker T. Washington

There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.

— Booker T. Washington

I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.

— Booker T. Washington

Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

— Booker T. Washington

You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.

— Booker T. Washington

Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him.

— Booker T. Washington

No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.

— Booker T. Washington

Dignify and glorify common labor. It is at the bottom of life that we must begin, not at the top.

— Booker T. Washington

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

— Booker T. Washington