Booker T. Washington Quotes

On this page you can find the TOP of Booker T. Washington's best quotes! We hope you will find some sayings from Educator Booker T. Washington's in our collection, which will inspire you to new achievements! There are currently 121 quotes on this page collected since April 5, 1856! Share our collection of quotes with your friends on social media so that they can find something to inspire them!
  • If you truly want to measure the success of a man, you do not measure it by a position he has achieved, but by the obstacles he has overcome.

  • ...those who are guilty of such sweeping criticisms [of the rich] do not know how many people would be made poor, and how much sufering would result, if wealthy people were to part all at once with any large proportion of their wealth in a way to disorganize and cripple great business enterprises.

    Frederick Douglass, Solomon Northup, Willie Lynch, Nat Turner, Sojourner Truth (2017). “100$ REWARD ON MY HEAD – Powerful & Unflinching Memoirs Of Former Slaves: 28 Narratives in One Volume: With Hundreds of Documented Testimonies & True Life Stories: Memoirs of Frederick Douglass, Underground Railroad, 12 Years a Slave, Incidents in Life of a Slave Girl, Narrative of Sojourner Truth...”, p.1065, e-artnow
  • We shall prosper as we learn to do the common things of life in an uncommon way. Let down your buckets where you are.

  • Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

    "Democracy and Education". Booker T. Washington's Speech at Institute of Arts and Sciences, Brooklyn NY, September 30, 1896.
  • In proportion as one renders service he becomes great.

    Booker T. Washington (2013). “Character Building”, p.77, Simon and Schuster
  • Success waits patiently for anyone who has the determination and strength to seize it.

  • Great men cultivate love and only little men cherish a spirit of hatred; assistance given to the weak makes the one who gives it strong; oppression of the unfortunate makes one weak.

    Booker T. Washington (2013). “The Booker T. Washington Reader”, p.81, Simon and Schuster
  • In my contact with people, I find that, as a rule, it is only the little, narrow people who live for themselves, who never read good books, who do not travel, who never open up their souls in a way to permit them to come into contact with other souls – with the great outside world.

    W. E. B. Du Bois, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington (2012). “Three African-American Classics: Up from Slavery, The Souls of Black Folk and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, p.111, Courier Corporation
  • 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.

    Booker T. Washington (2015). “Up from Slavery: Top Biography”, p.13, 谷月社
  • I think I have learned, in some degree at least, to disregard the old maxim ""Do not get others to do what you can do yourself."" My motto on the other hand is; ""Do not do that which others can do as well.

    Booker T. Washington (2006). “Up from Slavery: Easyread Comfort Edition”, p.240, ReadHowYouWant.com
  • We must not only become reliable, progressive, skillful and intelligent, but we must keep the idea constantly before our youths that all forms of labor, whether with the hand or head, are honorable.

  • 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.

    Booker T. Washington (1982). “The Booker T. Washington Papers: 1912-14”, p.66, University of Illinois Press
  • The thing to do when one feels sure that he has said or done the right thing and is condemned, is to stand still and keep quiet. If he is right, time will show it.

    Booker T. Washington (2013). “The Booker T. Washington Reader”, p.110, Simon and Schuster
  • Leaders have devoted themselves to politics, little knowing, it seems that political independence disappears without economic independence that economic independence is the foundation of political independence.

    Booker T. Washington, Louis R. Harlan (1984). “The Booker T. Washington Papers: 1914-15”, p.396, University of Illinois Press
  • The time will come when the Negro in the South will be accorded all the political rights which his ability, character, and material possessions entitle him to.

    Booker T. Washington (2013). “A Will to Be Free”, p.129, Simon and Schuster
  • Political activity alone cannot make a man free. Back of the ballot, he must have property, industry, skill, economy, intelligence, and character.

  • Never let your work drive you. Master it and keep it in complete control.

    Success  
  • I believe that one always does himself and his audience an injustice when he speaks merely for the sake of speaking. I do not believe that one should speak unless, deep down in his heart, he feels convinced that he has a message to deliver.

    Booker T. Washington (2013). “The Booker T. Washington Reader”, p.115, Simon and Schuster
  • If you can't read, it's going to be hard to realize dreams.

  • A life is not worth much of which it cannot be said, when it comes to its close, that it was helpful to humanity.

    Booker T. Washington, Victoria Earle Matthews (1898). “Black-belt Diamonds: Gems from the Speeches, Addresses, and Talks to Students of Booker T. Washington ...”
  • To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbor, I would say 'Cast down your bucket where you are.'

    Booker T. Washington (2013). “The Booker T. Washington Reader”, p.105, Simon and Schuster
  • No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized.

    Booker T. Washington (2015). “Up from Slavery: Top Biography”, p.107, 谷月社
  • Progress, progress is the law of nature; under God it shall be our eternal guiding star.

    John William Gibson, William Henry Crogman, Booker T. Washington, Fannie Barrier Williams (1902). “Progress of a race: or, The remarkable advancement of the American Negro from the bondage of slavery, ignorance and poverty to the freedom of citizenship, intelligence, affluence, honor and trust”
  • I early learned that it is a hard matter to convert an individual by abusing him, and that this is more often accomplished by giving credit for all the praiseworthy actions performed than by calling attention alone to all the evil done.

    Booker T. Washington (2013). “The Booker T. Washington Reader”, p.97, Simon and Schuster
  • Start where you are with what you have, knowing that what you have is plenty enough.

  • 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.

    Success  
    Booker T. Washington, Louis R. Harlan (1976). “The Booker T. Washington Papers: 1899-1900”, p.384, University of Illinois Press
  • 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 (2013). “The Booker T. Washington Reader”, p.17, Simon and Schuster
  • The Negro is not the man farthest down. The condition of the coloured farmer in the most backward parts of the Southern States of America, even where he has the least education and the least encouragement, is incomparably better than the condition and opportunities of the agricultural population in Sicily.

  • Character is power.

  • 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.

    Booker T. Washington (1972). “Papers: The Autobiographical Writings”, p.311, University of Illinois Press
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  • We hope you have found the saying you were looking for in our collection! At the moment, we have collected 121 quotes from the Educator Booker T. Washington, starting from April 5, 1856! We periodically replenish our collection so that visitors of our website can always find inspirational quotes by authors from all over the world! Come back to us again!

    Booker T. Washington

    • Born: April 5, 1856
    • Died: November 14, 1915
    • Occupation: Educator