"One is astonished in the study of history……" — W. E. B. Du Bois
"One is astonished in the study of history at the recurrence of the idea that evil must be forgotten, distorted, skimmed over. We must not remember that Daniel Webster got drunk but only that he was a splendid constitutional lawyer. We must forget that George Washington was a slave owner . . . and simply remember the things we regard as creditable and inspiring. The difficulty, of course, with this philosophy is that history loses its value as an incentive and example; it paints perfect man and noble nations, but it does not tell the truth."
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W. E. B. Du Bois
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113 Quotes by W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois has 113 quotes on this site.
A few more worth reading:
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Education is that whole system of human training within and without the school house walls, which molds and develops men.
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But what of black women?... I most sincerely doubt if any other race of women could have brought its fineness…
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A little less complaint and whining, and a little more dogged work and manly striving, would do us more credit…
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To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the…
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It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others,…
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One ever feels his twoness - an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals…
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The power of the ballot we need in sheer defense, else what shall save us from a second slavery?
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To stimulate wildly weak and untrained minds is to play with mighty fires.
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The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.
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When you have mastered numbers, you will in fact no longer be reading numbers, any more than you read words…
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If there is anybody in this land who thoroughly believes that the meek shall inherit the earth they have not…
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Believe in life! Always human beings will live and progress to greater, broader, and fuller life.
See all 113 quotes by W. E. B. Du Bois »
More African American Quotes
This quote is filed under African American Quotes,
one of 584 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:
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We all do 'do, re, mi,' but you have got to find the other notes yourself.
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Let it be your constant method to look into the design of people's actions, and see what they would be…
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A man without ambition is dead. A man with ambition but no love is dead. A man with ambition and…
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A crown, if it hurts us, is not worth wearing.
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Hungry people cannot be good at learning or producing anything, except perhaps violence.
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One of the things that has to be faced is the process of waiting to change the system, how much…
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The things we truly love stay with us always, locked in our hearts as long as life remains.
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The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.
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I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So…
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Hatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the man who hated, and this was an immutable law.
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To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all…
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To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to…
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