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.Collection: Success
Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.Collection: Work
Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company.Collection: Good
At the bottom of education, at the bottom of politics, even at the bottom of religion, there must be for our race economic independence.Collection: Religion
There is no power on earth that can neutralize the influence of a high, simple and useful life.Collection: Power
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.Collection: Life
If you can't read, it's going to be hard to realize dreams.Collection: Dreams
Character is power.Collection: Power
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.Collection: Life
We do not want the men of another color for our brothers-in-law, but we do want them for our brothers.Collection: Men
I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.Collection: Anger
There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.Collection: Strength
Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him.Collection: Trust
If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.
Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.
Character, not circumstances, makes the man.
You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.
One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him.
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.
To hold a man down, you have to stay down with him.
No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.
The individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in the end, make his way regardless of his race.
Dignify and glorify common labor. It is at the bottom of life that we must begin, not at the top.
We must reinforce argument with results.
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.
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.Collection: Jobs
There is a certain class of race problem-solvers who don't want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public.Collection: Get Well
The happiest people are those who do the most for others. The most miserable are those who do the least.Collection: Inspirational
Success waits patiently for anyone who has the determination and strength to seize it.Collection: Determination
Most leaders spend time trying to get others to think highly of them, when instead they should try to get their people to think more highly of themselves. It's wonderful when the people believe in their leader. It's more wonderful when the leader believes in their people! You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.Collection: Believe
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.Collection: Hate
I would permit no man, no matter what his colour might be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.Collection: Positive
Living is the art of loving. Loving is the art of caring. Caring is the art of sharing. Sharing is the art of living. If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.Collection: Art
Success is not measured by where you are in life, but the obstacles you've over comeCollection: Inspirational
Political activity alone cannot make a man free. Back of the ballot, he must have property, industry, skill, economy, intelligence, and character.Collection: Character
An inch of progress is worth more than a yard of complaint.Collection: Progress
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.Collection: Running
An ounce of application is worth a ton of abstraction.Collection: Clarity
The older I grow, the more I am convinced that there is no education which one can get from books and costly apparatus that is equal to that which can be gotten from contact with great men and women.Collection: Book
Holding a grudge does not hurt the person against whom the grudge is held, it hurts the one who holds it.Collection: Hurt
Think about it: we went into slavery pagans; we came out Christians. We went into slavery pieces of property; we came out American citizens. We went into slavery with chains clanking about our wrists; we came out with the American ballot in our hands.Collection: Christian
The highest test of the civilization of any race is in its willingness to extend a helping hand to the less fortunate.Collection: Famous Inspirational
Great men cultivate love...only little men cherish a spirit of hatredCollection: Men
Start where you are with what you have, knowing that what you have is plenty enough.Collection: Knowing
Success always leaves footprints.Collection: Footprint
Had (I) been a member of a more popular race, I should have been inclined to yield to the temptation of depending upon my ancestry and my colour to do that for me which I should do for myself. Years ago I resolved that because I had no ancestry myself I would leave a record of which my children would be proud, and which might encourage them to still higher effortCollection: Children
Don't ever let them pull you down so low as to hate them. (also cited as: I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.)Collection: Peace
A race, like an individual, lifts itself up by lifting others up.Collection: Integrity
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.Collection: Exercise
The actual sight of a first-class house that a Negro has built is ten times more potent than pages of discussion about a house that he ought to build, or perhaps could build.Collection: Sight