There is no escape–man drags man down, or man lifts man up. — Booker T. Washington

Success always leaves footprints. — Booker T. Washington

No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized. — Booker T. Washington

Don’t ever let them pull you down so low as to hate them. (also cited as: I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.) — Booker T. Washington

An ounce of application is worth a ton of abstraction. — Booker T. Washington

If I have done anything in life worth attention, I feel sure that I inherited the disposition from my mother. — Booker T. Washington

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. — Booker T. Washington

Educated men and women, especially those who are in college, very often get the idea that religion is fit only for the common people. No young man or woman can make a greater error than this. — Booker T. Washington

It means a great deal, I think, to start off on a foundation which one has made for oneself. — Booker T. Washington

The actual sight of a first–class house that a Negro has built is ten times more potent than pages of discussion about a house that he ought to build, or perhaps could build. — Booker T. Washington

There are two ways of exerting one’s strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up. — Booker T. Washington

The highest test of the civilization of any race is in its willingness to extend a helping hand to the less fortunate. — Booker T. Washington

No one can degrade us except ourselves. — Booker T. Washington

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

An inch of progress is worth more than a yard of complaint. — Booker T. Washington

The happiest people are those who do the most for others. The most miserable are those who do the least. — Booker T. Washington

My whole life has largely been one of surprises. — Booker T. Washington

Political activity alone cannot make a man free. Back of the ballot, he must have property, industry, skill, economy, intelligence, and character. — Booker T. Washington

Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work. — Booker T. Washington

I think I have learned that the best way to lift one’s self up is to help someone else. — Booker T. Washington

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

Lay hold of something that will help you, and then use it to help somebody else. — Booker T. Washington

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. — Booker T. Washington

One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him. — Booker T. Washington

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

We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary. — Booker T. Washington

A sure way for one to lift himself up is by helping to lift someone else. — Booker T. Washington

We shall prosper as we learn to do the common things of life in an uncommon way. Let down your buckets where you are. — Booker T. Washington

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. — Booker T. Washington

There is no defense or security for any of us except in the highest intelligence and development of all. — Booker T. Washington

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

Success is not measured by where you are in life, but the obstacles you’ve over come — Booker T. Washington

No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. — Booker T. Washington

Never let your work drive you. Master it and keep it in complete control. — Booker T. Washington

The older I grow, the more I am convinced that there is no education which one can get from books and costly apparatus that is equal to that which can be gotten from contact with great men and women. — Booker T. Washington

Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way. — Booker T. Washington

Let our opportunities overshadow our grievances. — Booker T. Washington

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

Progress, progress is the law of nature; under God it shall be our eternal guiding star. — Booker T. Washington

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. — Booker T. Washington

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. — Booker T. Washington

We do not want the men of another color for our brothers–in–law, but we do want them for our brothers. — Booker T. Washington