Quotes from W.E.B. Du Bois

The Wisdom of W.E.B. Du Bois

Believe in life! Always human beings will progress to greater, broader, and fuller life.

The worker must work for the glory of his handiwork, not simply for pay; the thinker must think for truth, not for fame.

The South believed an educated Negro to be a dangerous Negro. And the South was not wholly wrong; for education among all kinds of men always has had, and always will have, an element of danger and revolution, of dissatisfaction and discontent. Nevertheless, men strive to know.

Perhaps the most extraordinary characteristic of current America is the attempt to reduce life to buying and selling. Life is not love unless love is sex and bought and sold. Life is not knowledge save knowledge of technique, of science for destruction. Life is not beauty except beauty for sale. Life is not art unless its price is high and it is sold for profit. All life is production for profit, and for what is profit but for buying and selling again?

Honest and earnest criticism from those whose interests are most nearly touched,- criticism of writers by readers, of government by those governed, of leaders by those led, - this is the soul of democracy and the safeguard of modern society

To the real question, How does it feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word.

But art is not simply works of art; it is the spirit that knows Beauty, that has music in its being and the color of sunsets in its headkerchiefs; that can dance on a flaming world and make the world dance, too.

The power of the ballot we need in sheer defense, else what shall save us from a second slavery?

The most important thing to remember is this: to be ready at any moment to give up what you are for what you might become.