Booker T. Washington

Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.

— Booker T. Washington

My whole life has largely been one of surprises.

— Booker T. Washington

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

— Booker T. Washington

“Character, not circumstance, makes the person.”

— Booker T. Washington

I let no man drag me down so low as to make me hate him.

— Booker T. Washington

No one can degrade us except ourselves.

— Booker T. Washington

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

— Booker T. Washington

Never let your work drive you. Master it and keep it in complete control.

— Booker T. Washington

“it is the smaller, the petty, things in life that divide people. It is the great tasks that bring men together.”

— Booker T. Washington

“I began learning long ago that those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.”

— Booker T. Washington

We shall prosper as we learn to do the common things of life in an uncommon way. Let down your buckets where…

— 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

“The great human law that in the end recognizes and rewards merit is everlasting and universal.”

— 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…

— Booker T. Washington

You go to school, you study about the Germans and the French, but not about your own race. I hope the time…

— Booker T. Washington

“I had the feeling that to get into a schoolhouse and study in this way would be about the same as getting…

— Booker T. Washington

The actual sight of a first-class house that a Negro has built is ten times more potent than pages of discussion about…

— Booker T. Washington

It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be…

— Booker T. Washington

I believe that any man's life will be filled with constant and unexpected encouragement, if he makes up his mind to do…

— Booker T. Washington

Every person who has grown to any degree of usefulness, every person who has grown to distinction, almost without exception has been…

— Booker T. Washington

I believe that my race will succeed in proportion as it learns to do a common thing in an uncommon manner; learns…

— Booker T. Washington

The wisest among my race understand that agitations of social equality is the extremist folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of…

— Booker T. Washington

I think I have learned, in some degree at least, to disregard the old maxim ""Do not get others to do what…

— 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…

— Booker T. Washington

“I have found in my dealings with the Negro race — and I believe that the same is true of all races…

— Booker T. Washington

“Too often, it seems to me, in missionary and educational work among underdeveloped races, people yield to the temptation of doing that…

— Booker T. Washington

“In my contact with people I find that, as a rule, it is only the little, narrow people who live for themselves,…

— Booker T. Washington

Had (I) been a member of a more popular race, I should have been inclined to yield to the temptation of depending…

— Booker T. Washington

“From his example in this respect, I learned the lesson that great men cultivate love, and that only little men cherish a…

— Booker T. Washington

“never liked the atmosphere of Washington. I early saw that it was impossible to build up a race of which the leaders…

— Booker T. Washington

“My experience is that people who call themselves "The Intellectuals" understand theories, but they do not understand things. I have long been…

— Booker T. Washington

“When I meet cases, as I frequently do, of such unfortunate and misguided young men as I have described, I cannot but…

— Booker T. Washington

Great men cultivate love...only little men cherish a spirit of hatred

— Booker T. Washington

An inch of progress is worth more than a yard of complaint.

— Booker T. Washington

A race, like an individual, lifts itself up by lifting others up.

— Booker T. Washington

An ounce of application is worth a ton of abstraction.

— Booker T. Washington

Do not do that which others can do as well.

— Booker T. Washington

Ignorance is more costly to any State than education.

— Booker T. Washington

We must reinforce argument with results.

— Booker T. Washington

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

— Booker T. Washington