Top 125 Quotes & Sayings by Booker T. Washington
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American educator Booker T. Washington.
Last updated on September 17, 2024.
No man, who continues to add something to the material, intellectual and moral well-being of the place in which he lives, is left long without proper reward.
To hold a man down, you have to stay down with him.
No greater injury can be done to any youth than to let him feel that because he belongs to this or that race he will be advanced in life regardless of his own merits or efforts.
We do not want the men of another color for our brothers-in-law, but we do want them for our brothers.
Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.
If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.
One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him.
Character is power.
Dignify and glorify common labor. It is at the bottom of life that we must begin, not at the top.
At the bottom of education, at the bottom of politics, even at the bottom of religion, there must be for our race economic independence.
Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him.
No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.
Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.
The individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in the end, make his way regardless of his race.
There is no power on earth that can neutralize the influence of a high, simple and useful life.
If you can't read, it's going to be hard to realize dreams.
Success in life is founded upon attention to the small things rather than to the large things; to the every day things nearest to us rather than to the things that are remote and uncommon.
We must reinforce argument with results.
Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company.
Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.
I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.
I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.
There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.
You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.
Character, not circumstances, makes the man.
Start where you are with what you have, knowing that what you have is plenty enough.
Lay hold of something that will help you, and then use it to help somebody else.
Decide to be your best. In the long run the world is going to want and have the best and that might as well be you.
Every person who has grown to any degree of usefulness, every person who has grown to distinction, almost without exception has been a person who has risen by overcoming obstacles, by removing difficulties, by resolving that when he met discouragement he would not give up.
Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.
The happiest people are those who do the most for others. The most miserable are those who do the least.
Never let your work drive you. Master it and keep it in complete control.
Never get to the point where you will be ashamed to ask anybody for information. The ignorant man will always be ignorant if he fears that by asking another for information he will display ignorance. Better once display your ignorance of a certain subject than always know nothing of it.
The man who has learned to do something better than anyone else, has learned to do a common thing in an uncommon manner, is the man who has a power and influence that no adverse circumstances can take from him.
Great men cultivate love...only little men cherish a spirit of hatred
Remember that everyone's life is measured by the power that individual has to make the world better-this is all life is.
Success always leaves footprints.
The circumstances that surround a man's life are not important. How that man responds to those circumstances IS IMPORTANT. His response is the ultimate determining factor between success and failure.
Success is not measured by where you are in life, but the obstacles you've over come
I would permit no man, no matter what his colour might be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.
Political activity alone cannot make a man free. Back of the ballot, he must have property, industry, skill, economy, intelligence, and character.
There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.
You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you have to overcome to reach your goals.
The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what the man or woman is able to do that counts.
Those who have accomplished the greatest results are those...who never grow excited or lose self-control, but are always calm, self-possessed, patient and polite.
An inch of progress is worth more than a yard of complaint.
The highest test of the civilization of any race is in its willingness to extend a helping hand to the less fortunate.
Living is the art of loving. Loving is the art of caring. Caring is the art of sharing. Sharing is the art of living. If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.
Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him.
Holding a grudge does not hurt the person against whom the grudge is held, it hurts the one who holds it.
Success waits patiently for anyone who has the determination and strength to seize it.
Most leaders spend time trying to get others to think highly of them, when instead they should try to get their people to think more highly of themselves. It's wonderful when the people believe in their leader. It's more wonderful when the leader believes in their people! You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.
Of all forms of slavery there is none that is so harmful and degrading as that form of slavery which tempts one human being to hate another by reason of his race or color. One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him.
No one can degrade us except ourselves.
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.
I shall never permit myself to stoop so low as to hate any man.
Ignorance is more costly to any State than education.
There is a certain class of race problem-solvers who don't want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public.
Think about it: we went into slavery pagans; we came out Christians. We went into slavery pieces of property; we came out American citizens. We went into slavery with chains clanking about our wrists; we came out with the American ballot in our hands.
You may fill your heads with knowledge or skillfully train your hands, but unless it is based upon high, upright character, upon a true heart, it will amount to nothing. You will be no better than the most ignorant.
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