Quotes from Madam C. J. Walker

I had to make my own living and my own opportunity. But I made it!

I am not ashamed of my past; I am not ashamed of my humble beginnings.

Perseverance is my motto!

Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.

I got my start by giving myself a start.

America doesn't respect anything but money. What our people need is a few millionaires.

Everybody told me I was making a mistake by going into this business, but I know how to grow hair as well as I know how to grow cotton.

I want the great masses of my people to take a greater pride in their appearance and to give their hair proper attention.

I had to make my own living and my own opportunity. But I made it! Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.

I want to live to help my race.

I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there I was promoted to the washtub. From there I was promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations.

I feel that I am in a business that is a credit to the womanhood of our race.

The girls and women of our race must not be afraid to take hold of business endeavor and, by patient industry, close economy, determined effort and close application to business, wring success out of a number of business opportunities that lie at their very doors.

I have made it possible for many colored women to abandon the washtub for a more pleasant and profitable occupation.

As I bent over the washboard and looked at my arms buried in soapsuds, I said to myself, 'What are you going to do when you grow old and your back gets stiff?' This set me to thinking, but with all my thinking I couldn't see how a poor washerwoman was going to better my condition.

My advice to every one expecting to go into business is to hit often and hit hard; in other words, strike with all your might.

There is no royal flower strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it, for whatever success I have attained has been the result of much hard work and many sleepless nights.

I have always held myself out as a hair culturist. I grow hair.

I have built my own factory on my own ground, 38 by 208 feet. I employ in that factory seven people, including a bookkeeper, a stenographer, a cook and a housegirl.

This is the greatest country under the sun. But we must not let our love of country, our patriotic loyalty, cause us to abate one whit in our protest against wrong and injustice.

I want you to understand that your first duty is to humanity. I want others to look at us and see that we care not just about ourselves but about others.

Don't think that because you have to go down in the wash-tub that you are any less a lady!

In a dream, a big black man appeared to me and told me what to mix up for my hair. I made up my mind I would begin to sell it.

One night I had a dream, and in that dream a big black man appeared to me and told me what to mix up for my hair. I made up my mind I would begin to sell it.