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.
Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.
I shall never permit myself to stoop so low as to hate any man.
I learned the lesson that great men cultivate love, and that only little men cherish a spirit of hatred. I resolved then that I would permit no man, no matter what his color, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.
Too often the educational value of doing well what is done, however little, is overlooked. One thing well done prepares the mind to do the next thing better. Not how much, but how well, should be the motto. One problem thoroughly understood is of more value than a score poorly mastered.
The individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in the end, make his way regardless of his race.
I let no man drag me down so low as to make me hate him.
It means a great deal, I think, to start off on a foundation which one has made for oneself.
I think I have learned that the best way to lift one’s self up is to help someone else.
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.
Do not do that which others can do as well.
An inch of progress is worth a yard of complaint.
If you can’t read, it’s going to be hard to realize dreams.
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.
We do not want the men of another color for our brothers-in-law, but we do want them for our brothers.
I pity from the bottom of my heart any individual who is so unfortunate as to get into the habit of holding race prejudice, for nothing else makes one so blind and narrow.
Remember that everyone’s life is measured by the power that individual has to make the world better-this is all life is.
Each one should remember there is a chance for him.
I never liked the atmosphere of Washington. I early saw that it was impossible to build up a race of which the leaders were spending most of their time, thought and energy in trying to get into office, or in trying to stay there after they were in.
No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized.
Political activity alone cannot make a man free. Back of the ballot, he must have property, industry, skill, economy, intelligence, and character.