Booker T. Washington Quotes

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.

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

Decide to be your best. In the long run the world is going to want and have the best and that might as well be you.

You may fill your heads with knowledge or skillfully train your hands, but unless it is based upon high, upright character, upon a true heart, it will amount to nothing. You will be no better than the most ignorant.

Character is power.

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

Political activity alone cannot make a man free. Back of the ballot, he must have property, industry, skill, economy, intelligence, and character.

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

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

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.

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

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

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

Success is not measured by where you are in life, but the obstacles you’ve over come