Booker T. Washington

There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.

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

You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.

I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate 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.

Dignify and glorify common labor. It is at the bottom of life that we must begin, not at the top.

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.

There is no power on earth that can neutralize the influence of a high, simple and useful life.

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.

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.

If you can't read, it's going to be hard to realize dreams.

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