Booker T. Washington quotes - page 2

Booker T. Washington was an influential African American educator, author, and leader in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As the founder of the Tuskegee Institute, his work focused on promoting vocational education and economic self-reliance for Black Americans. He advocated for gradual social progress and became a prominent voice for African American advancement. Here are 70 of his quotes:

We all should rise, above the clouds of ignorance, narrowness, and selfishness.

Booker T. Washington

Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.

Booker T. Washington

Success always leaves footprints.

Booker T. Washington

I have begun everything with the idea that I could succeed, and I never had much patience with the multitudes of people who are always ready to explain why one cannot succeed.

Booker T. Washington

We must reinforce argument with results.

Booker T. Washington

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

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

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

Booker T. Washington

You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you have to overcome to reach your goals.

Booker T. Washington

The individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in the end, make his way regardless of his race.

Booker T. Washington

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

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

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

Booker T. Washington

Men may make laws to hinder and fetter the ballot, but men cannot make laws that will bind or retard the growth of manhood.

Booker T. Washington

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.

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

It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercise of those privileges.

Booker T. Washington

My whole life has largely been one of surprises.

Booker T. Washington

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

Booker T. Washington

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

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

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