Quotes from Benjamin E. Mays

Whatever you do, do it so well that people looking on will feel that the task was reserved especially for you by God Himself.

A child must learn early to believe that she is somebody worthwhile, and that she can do many praiseworthy things.

It is born in mind that the tragedy of life does not lie in not reaching the goal. The tragedy of life lies in having no goal to reach.

It is not your environment, it is you- the quality of your mind, the integrity of your soul and the determination of your will that will decide your future and shape your life.

It must be borne in mind that the tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goals to reach.

It isn't a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for.

Many well-meaning intelligent people have argued since the May 17, 1954, decision of the United States Supreme Court outlawing segregation in the public schools that communication between the races has broken down.

The tragedy of this life is not failure, but low aim.

. . . the circumference of life cannot be rightly drawn until the center is set.

In this perilous world, if a black boy wanted to live a halfway normal life and die a natural death he had to learn early the art of how to get along with white folks.

If what is communicated is false, it can hardly be called communication.

The creation of the spiritual was no accident. It was a creation born of necessity, so that the slave might more adequately adjust himself to the conditions of the New World.

Not failure, but low aim is sin.

The tragedy of life lies not in not reaching your goals, but in having no goals to reach.

We, today, stand on the shoulders of our predecessors who have gone before us. We, as their successors, must catch the torch of freedom and liberty passed on to us by our ancestors. We cannot lose this battle.

Honest communication is built on truth and integrity and upon respect of the one for the other.

The tragedy of life is often not in our failure, but rather in our complacency; not in our doing too much, but rather in our doing too little; not in our living above our ability, but rather in our living below our capacities.

Not failure, but low aim is sin.

For nearly a century, the South made itself believe that Negroes and white people were really communicating. So convinced of this were the white Southerners that they almost made the nation believe that they, and only they, knew the mind of the Southern Negro.

It is not a disaster to be unable to capture your ideal, but it is a disaster to have no ideal to capture.

Whatever you do,strive to do it so well that no man living and no man dead and no man yet to be born could do it any better.

Every man and woman is born into the world to do something unique and something distinctive and if he or she does not do it, it will never be done.

He who starts behind in the great race of life must forever remain behind or run faster than the man in front.

It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream.