Quotes from Booker T. Washington

Great men cultivate love and only little men cherish a spirit of hatred; assistance given to the weak makes the one who gives it strong; oppression of the unfortunate makes one weak.

You must understand the troubles of that man farthest down before you can help him.

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

To hold a man down, you have to stay down with him.

Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.

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

Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

We must reinforce argument with results.

We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

It often requires more courage to suffer in silence than to rebel, more courage not to strike back than to retaliate, more courage to be silent than to speak.

No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.

At the bottom of education, at the bottom of politics, even at the bottom of religion, there must be for our race economic independence.

Ignorance is more costly to any State than education.

Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.

The highest test of the civilization of any race is in its willingness to extend a helping hand to the less fortunate.