Best Quotes from Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington with Page Numbers

I do not find especial fault with him. He was simply another unfortunate victim of the institution which the Nation unhappily had engrafted upon it at that time.

I can scarcely imagine any torture, except, perhaps, the pulling of a tooth, that is equal to that caused by putting on a new flax shirt for the first time.

But I do not find especial fault with him. He was simply another unfortunate victim of the institution which the Nation unhappily had engrafted upon it at that time.

I have long since ceased to cherish any spirit of bitterness against the Southern white people on account of the enslavement of my race.

In the case of the slaves on our place this was not true, and it was not true of any large portion of the slave population in the South where the Negro was treated with anything like decency.

I have never seen one who did not want to be free, or one who would return to slavery.

I have been old enough to think for myself, I have entertained the idea that, notwithstanding the cruel wrongs inflicted upon us, the black man got nearly as much out of slavery as the white man did.

When freedom came, the slaves were almost as well fitted to begin life anew as the master, except in the matter of book-learning and ownership of property.

The great responsibility of being free, of having charge of themselves, of having to think and plan for themselves and their children, seemed to take possession of them.

Freedom was in the air, and had been for months.

There was a feeling that "John Hatcher" or "Hatcher's John" was not the proper title by which to denote a freeman.

I had an intense longing to learn to read.

If I accomplished nothing else in life, I would in some way get enough education to enable me to read common books and newspapers.

Though she was totally ignorant, she had high ambitions for her children.

I often felt that I had to fight harder to get an education than my white counterparts.

The time that I was permitted to attend school during the day was short, and my attendance was irregular.

It is seldom that anything is permanently gained by holding back a fact.

I 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 overcome while trying to succeed.

Every persecuted individual and race should get much consolation out of the great human law, which is universal and eternal, that merit, no matter under what skin found, is, in the long run, recognized and rewarded.

I have always been made sad when I have heard members of any race claiming rights or privileges...on the ground simply that they were members of this or that race.

I was on fire constantly with one ambition, and that was to go to Hampton.

The lessons that I learned in the home of Mrs. Ruffner were as valuable to me as any education I have ever gotten anywhere else.

I felt that I had reached the promised land, and I resolved to let no obstacle prevent me from putting forth the highest effort to fit myself to accomplish the most good in the world.

The sweeping of that room was my college examination, and never did any youth pass an examination for entrance into Harvard or Yale that gave him more genuine satisfaction.

I never met any man who, in my estimation, was the equal of General Armstrong.

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.

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

To wear one suit of clothes continually... was rather a hard problem for me to solve.

The great and prevailing idea that seemed to take possession of every one was to prepare himself to lift up the people at his home.

The time is not far distant when the whole South will appreciate this service in a way that it has not yet been able to do.

"...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."

"...one of the things that impressed itself upon me deeply, the second year, was the unselfishness of the teachers. It was hard for me to understand how any individuals could bring themselves to the point where they could be so happy in working for others."

"I think I began learning that those who are happiest are those who do the most for others."

"...I often make it a rule to read a chapter or a portion of a chapter in the morning, before beginning the work of the day."

"...I learned that it was not a disgrace to labour, but learned to love labour, not alone for its financial value, but for labour's own sake..."

"...I have had no patience with any school for my race in the South which did not teach its students the dignity of labour."

"...I was completely out of money when I graduated..."

"...I felt that I had the opportunity to help the people of my home town to a higher life."

"...with little thought of it, I taught any one who wanted to learn anything that I could teach him."

"...the happiest individuals are those who do the most to make others useful and happy."

The ambition to secure an education was most praiseworthy and encouraging.

I felt that the ignorance of my race was being used as a tool with which to help white men into office.

I was kept from doing so by the feeling that I would be helping in a more substantial way by assisting in the laying of the foundation of the race through a generous education of the hand, head, and heart.

The improvement that has taken place in the character of the teachers is even more marked than in the case of the ministers.

The final solution of the political end of our race problem will be for each state that finds it necessary to change the law bearing upon the franchise to make the law apply with absolute honesty.

It would have been wiser if some plan could have been put in operation which would have made the possession of a certain amount of education or property, or both, a test for the exercise of the franchise.

Not all the coloured people who were in office during Reconstruction were unworthy of their positions.

I often wished them, and have often wished since, that by some power of magic I might remove the great bulk of these people into the county districts and plant them upon the soil.

At the institution I attended there was no industrial training given to the students.

The students at the other school seemed to be less self-dependent.

I had a strong feeling that what our people most needed was to get a foundation in education, industry, and property.

The soul that is within me no man can degrade.

I have often wondered if there was a white institution in this country whose students would have welcomed the incoming of more than a hundred companions of another race in the cordial way.

The more unfortunate the race, and the lower in the scale of civilization, the more does one raise one's self by giving the assistance.

Do you suppose that I am going to permit a poor, ignorant, coloured man to be more polite than I am?

I was determined to succeed.

These students showed so much earnestness, both in their hard work during the day, as well as in their application to their studies at night.

I gave them the name of "The Plucky Class" — a name which soon grew popular and spread throughout the institution.

It is seldom that five years have wrought such a change in the life and aspirations of an individual.

With each individual you help to elevate, you not only uplift them but also yourself.

I did find, though, that which no costly building and apparatus can supply, — hundreds of hungry, earnest souls who wanted to secure knowledge.

The first month I spent in finding accommodations for the school, and in travelling through Alabama, examining into the actual life of the people.

I found that about a year previous to my going to Tuskegee some of the coloured people who had heard something of the work of education being done at Hampton had applied to the state Legislature, through their representatives, for a small appropriation to be used in starting a normal school in Tuskegee.

The task before me did not seem a very encouraging one. It seemed much like making bricks without straw.

The coloured people were overjoyed, and were constantly offering their services in any way in which they could be of assistance in getting the school started.

I found Tuskegee to be a town of about two thousand inhabitants, nearly one-half of whom were coloured.

In these cabin homes I often found sewing-machines which had been bought, or were being bought, on instalments.

The breakfast over, and with practically no attention given to the house, the whole family would, as a general thing, proceed to the cotton-field.

I met some very interesting characters during my travels.

I wish my readers to keep in mind the fact that there were many encouraging exceptions to the conditions which I have described.

I was only one person, and it seemed to me that the little effort which I could put forth could go such a short distance toward bringing about results.

I felt would be almost a waste of time.

What were we to do? We had only the little old shanty and the abandoned church which the good coloured people of the town of Tuskegee had kindly loaned us for the accommodation of the classes.

It was hard for them to see the connection between clearing land and an education.

When they saw that I was not afraid or ashamed to work, they began to assist with more enthusiasm.

The success of the undertaking is largely due to these men, from whom I have never sought anything in vain.

I have always felt that Mr. Adams, in a large degree, derived his unusual power of mind from the training given his hands in the process of mastering well three trades during the days of slavery.

We wanted to teach the students how to bathe; how to care for their teeth and clothing.

I wanted to give them such an education as would fit a large proportion of them to be teachers, and at the same time cause them to return to the plantation districts.

I ain't got no money, but I wants you to take dese six eggs, what I's been savin' up, an' I wants you to put dese six eggs into the eddication of dese boys an' gals.

"While I was making this Christmas visit I met an old coloured man who was one of the numerous local preachers, who tried to convince me, from the experience Adam had in the Garden of Eden, that God had cursed all labour, and that, therefore, it was a sin for any man to work."

"At the present time one of the most satisfactory features of the Christmas and Thanksgiving season at Tuskegee is the unselfish and beautiful way in which our graduates and students spend their time in administering to the comfort and happiness of others, especially the unfortunate."

"I was determined that no one should have the feeling that it was a foreign institution, dropped down in the midst of the people, for which they had no responsibility and in which they had no interest."

"I have also advised them, where no principle is at stake, to consult the interests of their local communities, and to advise with their friends in regard to their voting."

"Perhaps I might add right here, what I hope to demonstrate later, that, so far as I know, the Tuskegee school at the present time has no warmer and more enthusiastic friends anywhere than it has among the white citizens of Tuskegee and throughout the state of Alabama and the entire South."

"I noted with satisfaction that a sentiment in favour of work was gaining ground."

"I could relate many instances of almost the same character. This four hundred dollars was given by two ladies in Boston."

"I shall always remember a bit of advice given me by Mr. George W. Campbell, the white man to whom I have referred to as the one who induced General Armstrong to send me to Tuskegee. Soon after I entered upon the work Mr. Campbell said to me, in his fatherly way: 'Washington, always remember that credit is capital.'"

"Through all our difficulties and anxieties, however, I never went to a white or a black person in the town of Tuskegee for any assistance that was in their power to render, without being helped according to their means."

"In all this, I felt that people would be surprised if we succeeded. All this made a burden which pressed down on us, sometimes, it seemed, at the rate of a thousand pounds to the square inch."

I wanted them to see not only utility in labour, but beauty and dignity.

I knew that our first buildings would not be so comfortable or so complete in their finish... but that in the teaching of civilization, self-help, and self-reliance, the erection of buildings by the students themselves would more than compensate for any lack of comfort or fine finish.

Mistakes I knew would be made, but these mistakes would teach us valuable lessons for the future.

The making of these bricks taught me an important lesson in regard to the relations of the two races in the South.

I have found that it is the visible, the tangible, that goes a long ways in softening prejudices.

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.

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

If the man can supply the need for those, then it will lead eventually to a demand for the first product, and with the demand will come the ability to appreciate it and to profit by it.

Gradually, with patience and hard work, we brought order out of chaos.

I am glad that we endured all those discomforts and inconveniences.

"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; and that oppression of the unfortunate makes one weak."

"With God's help, I believe that I have completely rid myself of any ill feeling toward the Southern white man for any wrong that he may have inflicted upon my race."

"I pity from the bottom of my heart any individual who is so unfortunate as to get into the habit of holding race prejudice."

"Let them once understand that you are unselfishly interested in them, and you can lead them to any extent."

"The most harmful effect of the practice to which the people in certain sections of the South have felt themselves compelled to resort... is not wholly in the wrong done to the Negro, but in the permanent injury to the morals of the white man."

"Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him."

"Tuskegee is not my institution, or that of the officers, but that it is their institution, and that they have as much interest in it as any of the trustees or instructors."

"Absolute cleanliness... people would excuse us for our poverty... but that they would not excuse us for dirt."

"The gospel of the tooth-brush... is part of our creed at Tuskegee."

When we seemed at the end of our resources, so far as securing money was concerned, something occurred which showed the greatness of General Armstrong.

He was too big to be little, too good to be mean.

In order to be successful in any kind of undertaking, I think the main thing is for one to grow to the point where he completely forgets himself; that is, to lose himself in a great cause.

Nothing ever comes to me, that is worth having, except as the result of hard work.

The first time I ever saw the late Collis P. Huntington, the great railroad man, he gave me two dollars for our school. The last time I saw him, … he gave me fifty thousand dollars toward our endowment fund.

I have found that strict business methods go a long way in securing the interest of rich people.

I repeat my belief that the world is growing in the direction of giving.

If the institution had been officered by white persons, and had failed, it would have injured the cause of Negro education; but I knew that the failure of our institution, officered by Negroes, would not only mean the loss of a school, but would cause people, in a large degree, to lose faith in the ability of the entire race.

It is upon these small gifts, which carry with them the interest of hundreds of donors, that any philanthropic work must depend largely for its support.

I often tell people that I have never 'begged' any money, and that I am not a 'beggar.'

Any one who is willing to work ten hours a day at the brick-yard, or in the laundry, through one or two years, in order that he or she may have the privilege of studying academic branches for two hours in the evening, has enough bottom to warrant being further educated.

Without my knowing it, there were a large number of people present from Alabama, and some from the town of Tuskegee.

I determined never to say anything in a public address in the North that I would not be willing to say in the South.

I have found that there is a large element in the South that is quick to respond to straightforward, honest criticism of any wrong policy.

The whole future of the Negro rested largely upon the question as to whether or not he should make himself, through his skill, intelligence, and character, of such undeniable value to the community in which he lived that the community could not dispense with his presence.

Any individual who learned to do something better than anybody else — learned to do a common thing in an uncommon manner — had solved his problem, regardless of the colour of his skin.

I explained that my theory of education for the Negro would not... confine him for all time to farm life... but that, if he succeeded in this line of industry, he could lay the foundations upon which his children and grandchildren could grow to higher and more important things in life.

I now come to that one of the incidents in my life which seems to have excited the greatest amount of interest.

I was determined to say nothing that I did not feel from the bottom of my heart to be true and right.

I always make it a rule to make especial preparation for each separate address.

"Cast down your bucket where you are."

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

"The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera-house."

"There is no defense or security for any of us except in the highest intelligence and development of all."

"These efforts will be twice blessed — 'blessing him that gives and him that takes.'"

"The laws of changeless justice bind Oppressor with oppressed; And close as sin and suffering joined We march to fate abreast."

"When it comes to business, pure and simple, it is in the South that the Negro is given a man's chance in the commercial world."

"Our greatest danger is that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we may overlook the fact that the masses of us are to live by the productions of our hands."

"Nothing in thirty years has given us more hope and encouragement, and drawn us so near to you of the white race, as this opportunity offered by the Exposition."

"If he is right, time will show it."

"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."

"Nothing tends to throw me off my balance so quickly, when I am speaking, as to have some one leave the room."

"I believe that one always does himself and his audience an injustice when he speaks merely for the sake of speaking."

"When one feels, from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head, that he has something to say that is going to help some individual or some cause, then let him say it."

"There is a thread of sympathy and oneness that connects a public speaker with his audience, that is just as strong as though it was something tangible and visible."

"I find that the most effective medicine for such individuals is administered at first in the form of a story."

"If my seventeen years of work in the heart of the South had not been explanation enough, I did not see how words could explain."

"I know that on such occasions there is much that comes to the surface that is superficial and deceptive, but I have had experience enough not to be deceived by mere signs and fleeting enthusiasms."

"The ability to sleep well, at any time and in any place, I find of great advantage."

"I would like to forget all about the rules for the proper use of the English language, and all about rhetoric and that sort of thing, and I like to make the audience forget all about these things, too."

The thing that impressed itself most on me in Holland was the thoroughness of the agriculture and the excellence of the Holstein cattle.

I believe that my race will succeed in proportion as it learns to do a common thing in an uncommon manner.

Any man, regardless of colour, will be recognized and rewarded just in proportion as he learns to do something well.

No man who continues to add something to the material, intellectual, and moral well-being of the place in which he lives is long left without proper reward.

It seemed to me that absolutely no land was wasted.

The love of pleasure and excitement which seems in a large measure to possess the French people impressed itself upon me.

The English home life seems to me to be about as perfect as anything can be.

When a Negro girl learns to cook, or a Negro boy learns to grow sweet potatoes, they will be rewarded regardless of race or colour.

Every avenue of escape had been closed.

I had more faith in the future of the black man in America than I had ever possessed.

I believe that any man's life will be filled with constant, unexpected encouragements of this kind if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day of his life.

I pity the man, black or white, who has never experienced the joy and satisfaction that come to one by reason of an effort to assist in making some one else more useful and more happy.

If a man in his condition was willing to think, work, and act, I should not be wanting in furthering in every possible way the wish of his heart.

I have often said to my friends that if I can use whatever prominence may have come to me as an instrument with which to do good, I am content to have it.

In the economy of God there is but one standard by which an individual can succeed — there is but one for a race.

How shall we make the mansion on yon Beacon Street feel and see the need of the spirits in the lowliest cabin in Alabama cotton-fields?

The problem, I say, has been solved.

The more I come into contact with wealthy people, the more I believe that they are growing in the direction of looking upon their money simply as an instrument which God has placed in their hand for doing good with.

Wherever our graduates go, the changes which soon begin to appear in the buying of land, improving homes, saving money, in education, and in high moral characters are remarkable.

The great human law that in the end recognizes and rewards merit is everlasting and universal.