1
No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.
Booker T. Washingtonverified·Address at the Atlanta Cotton States Exposition, in Up from Slavery·September 18, 1895
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22 quotes by Booker T. Washington · clear filters
2
It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities.
Booker T. Washingtonverified·Address at the Atlanta Cotton States Exposition, in Up from Slavery·September 18, 1895
3
Cast down your bucket where you are.
4
I will not say that I became discouraged, for as I now look back over my life I do not recall that I ever became discouraged over anything that I set out to accomplish.
5
Nothing ever comes to me, that is worth having, except as the result of hard work.
6
Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him.
7
My life had its beginning in the midst of the most miserable, desolate, and discouraging surroundings.
8
Ever since then I have had no patience with any school for my race in the South which did not teach its students the dignity of labour.
9
My experience is that there is something in human nature which always makes an individual recognize and reward merit, no matter under what colour of skin merit is found.
10
out of the hard and unusual struggle through which he is compelled to pass, he gets a strength, a confidence, that one misses whose pathway is comparatively smooth
11
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
12
My experience has been that the time to test a true gentleman is to observe him when he is in contact with individuals of a race that is less fortunate than his own.
13
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.
14
I learned that assistance given to the weak makes the one who gives it strong; and that oppression of the unfortunate makes one weak.
Attribution contested
Circulated everywhere as if you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else, which appears in none of Washington's books, addresses or letters. This is the sentence in Up from Slavery it compresses. The paraphrase is not unfair, but it is not a quotation, and it drops the second half -- the claim that oppressing the unfortunate makes the oppressor weak -- which is the part he was actually arguing.
15
Make up your minds that you are going to overcome every discouragement, and that you are not going to let any discouragement overcome you.
16
There are but two directions in this life in which you can grow; backward or forward.
17
I want you to make up your minds that you are going to be more nearly perfect, are going to put more manly and womanly strength into the preparation of your lessons each day, that you may be more useful.
18
Any one can seek a job, but it requires a person of rare ability to create a job.
19
We cannot get upon our feet, as a people, until we learn the saving habit; until we learn to save every nickel, every dime and every dollar that we can spare.
20
If we would be great, and good, and useful, we must pay the price. And remember that when we get down to the fundamental principles of truth, nature draws no colour line.
21
Our ability to make the world better depends entirely upon our ability to use every opportunity to make ourselves better.
22
No one gets much out of life who does not make his education a real, vital part of himself.