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Booker T. Washington

30 quotes

“Men may make laws to hinder and fetter the ballot, but men cannot make laws that will bind or retard the growth of manhood. We went into slavery a piece of property; we came out American citizens. We went into slavery pagans; we came out Christians. We went into slavery without a language; we came out speaking the proud Anglo-Saxon tongue. We went into slavery with slave chains clanking about our wrists; we came out with the American ballot in our hands. Progress, progress is the law of nature; under God it shall be our eternal guiding star.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) first seen 1895 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Problems of the Colored Race in the South," lecture, Hamilton Club, Chicago (10 December 1895)
“Character, not circumstances, makes the man. It is more important that we be prepared for voting than that we vote, more important that we be prepared to hold office than that we hold office, more important that we be prepared for the highest recognition than that we be recognized.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) first seen 1896 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Democracy and Education", address at the Institute of Arts and Sciences, Brooklyn, New York (30 September 1896)
“In working out our destiny, while the main burden and center of activity must be with us, we shall need in a large measure the help, the encouragement, the guidance that the strong can give the weak. Thus helped, we of both races in the South shall soon throw off the shackles of racial and sectional prejudice and rise above the clouds of ignorance, narrowness, and selfishness into that atmosphere, that pure sunshine, where it will be our highest ambition to serve man, our brother, regardless of race or past conditions.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) first seen 1896 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Democracy and Education", address at the Institute of Arts and Sciences, Brooklyn, New York (30 September 1896)
“I think I have learned that the best way to lift one's self up is to help someone else.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) first seen 1900 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Story of My Life and Work, vol. I (1900), ch. XV: Cuban Education and the Chicago Peace Jubilee Address
“There is no power on earth, that can neutralize the influence of a high, pure, simple and useful life.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) first seen 1902 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Virtue of Simplicity," from Character Building: Being Addresses Delivered on Sunday Evenings to the Students of Tuskegee Institute (1902), p. 41
“The world cares very little what you or I know, but it does care a great deal about what you or I do.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) first seen 1903 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Boston, Massachusetts (30 July 1903), printed in "Account of the Boston Riot," Boston Globe (31 July 1903)
“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.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) first seen 1909 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: An Address on Abraham Lincoln before the Republican Club of New York City (12 February 1909)
“In any country, regardless of what its laws say, wherever people act upon the idea that the disadvantage of one man is the good of another, there slavery exists. Wherever, in any country the whole people feel that the happiness of all is dependent upon the happiness of the weakest, there freedom exists.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) first seen 1909 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: An Address on Abraham Lincoln before the Republican Club of New York City (12 February 1909)
“There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Great Quotations (1971) edited by George Seldes, p. 366
“There is no escape — man drags man down, or man lifts man up.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Great Quotations (1971) edited by George Seldes, p. 366
“You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Great Quotations (1971) edited by George Seldes, p. 641
“In all things social as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) first seen 1904 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in speech by Edward de Veaux Morrell (April 1904)
“We have cleared the forests, reclaimed the land, and are building cities, railroads, and great institutions.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) first seen 1862 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Emancipation Proclamation, September 22, 1862 (1919), by E.G. Renesch, Chicago
“The unprecedented leap the Negro made when freed from the oppressing withes of bondage is more than deserving of a high place in history. It can never be chronicled. The world needs to know of what mettle these people are built.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) first seen 1902 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Introduction" (1902), Progress of a Race: Or, The Remarkable Advancement of the Afro-American
“From some things that I have said one may get the idea that some of the slaves did not want freedom. This is not true. I have never seen one who did not want to be free, or one who would return to slavery.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I learned the lesson that great men cultivate love, and that only little men cherish a spirit of hatred. I learned that assistance given to the weak makes the one who gives it strong; and that oppression of the unfortunate makes one weak.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I would permit no man, no matter what his colour might be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) first seen 1904 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: This statement was quoted in Charm and Courtesy in Conversation (1904) by Frances Bennett Callaway, p. 153 as "I permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him." It has also often been paraphrased in …
“Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nothing ever comes to me, that is worth having, except as the result of hard work.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Cast down your bucket where you are.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) first seen 1895 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: This address was a speech at the Cotton States and International Exposition, Atlanta (1895-09-18)
“In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No man who continues to add something to the material, intellectual, and moral well-being of the place in which he lives is long left without proper reward.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My whole life has largely been one of surprises. I believe that any man's life will be filled with constant, unexpected encouragements of this kind if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day of his life — that is, tries to make each day reach as nearly as possible the high-water mark of pure, unselfish, useful living.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“After making careful inquiry I can not find a half a dozen cases of a man or woman who has completed a full course of education in any of our reputable institutions like Hampton, Tuskegee, Fiske, or Atlanta, who are imprisoned. The records of the South show that 90 percent of the colored people imprisoned are without knowledge of trades and 61 percent are illiterate. But it has been said that the negro proves economically valueless in proportion as he is educated. Let us see. All will agree that the negro in Virginia, for example, began life forty years ago in complete poverty, scarcely owning clothing or a day's food. The reports of the State auditor show the negro today owns at least one twenty-sixth of the real estate in that Commonwealth exclusive of his holdings in towns and cities, and that in the counties east of the Blue Ridge Mountains he owns one-sixteenth. In Middlesex County he owns one-sixth: in Hanover, one-fourth. In Georgia the official records show that, largely through the influence of educated men and women from Atlanta schools and others, the negroes added last year $1,526,000 to their taxable property, making the total amount upon which they pay taxes in that State alone $16,700,000. Few people realize under the most difficult and trying circumstances, during the last forty years, it has been the educated negro who counseled patience, self-control, and thus averted a war of races. Every negro going out of our institutions properly educated becomes a link in the chain that shall forever bind the two races together in all essentials of life.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) first seen 1904 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in New York (12 February 1904), as quoted in speech by Edward de Veaux Morrell in the House of Representatives (4 April 1904)
“I pity from the bottom of my heart any nation or body of people that is so unfortunate as to get entangled in the net of slavery. I have long since ceased to cherish any spirit of bitterness against the Southern white people on account of the enslavement of my race. No one section of our country was wholly responsible for its introduction, and, besides, it was recognized and protected for years by the General Government. Having once got its tentacles fastened on to the economic and social life of the Republic, it was no easy matter for the country to relieve itself of the institution. Then, when we rid ourselves of prejudice, or racial feeling, and look facts in the face, we must acknowledge that, notwithstanding the cruelty and moral wrong of slavery, the ten million Negroes inhabiting this country, who themselves or whose ancestors went through the school of American slavery, are in a stronger and more hopeful condition, materially, intellectually, morally, and religiously, than is true of an equal number of black people in any other portion of the globe. This is so to such an extend that Negroes in this country, who themselves or whose forefathers went through the school of slavery, are constantly returning to Africa as missionaries to enlighten those who remained in the fatherland. This I say, not to justify slavery — on the other hand, I condemn it as an institution, as we all know that in America it was established for selfish and financial reasons, and not from a missionary motive — but to call attention to a fact, and to show how Providence so often uses men and institutions to accomplish a purpose.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 overcome while trying to succeed. Looked at from this standpoint, I almost reached the conclusion that often the Negro boy's birth and connection with an unpopular race is an advantage, so far as real life is concerned. With few exceptions, the Negro youth must work harder and must perform his tasks even better than a white youth in order to secure recognition. But out of the hard and unusual struggle through which he is compelled to pass, he gets a strength, a confidence, that one misses whose pathway is comparatively smooth by reason of birth and race.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In one thing, at least, I feel sure that the English are ahead of Americans, and that is, they have learned how to get more out of life. The home life of the English seems to me to be about as perfect as anything can be. Everything moves like clockwork. I was impressed, too, with the deference that the servants show to their "masters" and "mistresses" - terms which I suppose would not be tolerated in America. The English servant expects, as a rule, to be nothing but a servant, and so he perfects himself in the art to a degree that no class of servants in America has yet reached. In our country the servant expects to become, in a few years, a "master" himself. Which system is preferable? I will not venture an answer.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am afraid that 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. My experience is that people who call themselves "The Intellectuals" understand theories, but they do not understand things. I have long been convinced that, if these men could have gone into the South and taken up and become interested in some practical work which would have brought them in touch with people and things, the whole world would have looked very different to them. Bad as conditions might have seemed at first, when they saw that actual progress was being made, they would have taken a more hopeful view of the situation.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source