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W. E. B. Du Bois Quotes
1868–1963 United States
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (23 February 1868 – 27 August 1963) was an American civil rights activist, sociologist, educator, historian, author, editor, and scholar.
United States Academics Activists Agnostics Economists Also known as: W E B Du Bois, W.E.B. Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, DuBois, W.E.B., The Wisdom of W.E.B. Du Bois, W. E. B. DuBois
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The difference of development, North and South, is explained as a sort of working out of cosmic social and economic law. ... In this sweeping mechanistic interpretation, there is no room for the real plot of the story, for the clear mistake and guilt of building a new slavery of the working class in the midst of a fateful experiment in democracy.
Black Reconstruction in America (1935)
We can only understand the present by continually referring to and studying the past; when any one of the intricate phenomena of our daily life puzzles us; when there arises religious problems, political problems, race problems, we must always remember that while their solution lies in the present, their cause and their explanation lie in the past.
How shall Integrity face Oppression? What shall Honesty do in the face of Deception, Decency in the face of Insult, Self-Defense before Blows? How shall Desert and Accomplishment meet Despising, Detraction, and Lies? What shall Virtue do to meet Brute Force? There are so many answers and so contradictory; and such differences for those on the one hand who meet questions similar to this once a year or once a decade, and those who face them hourly and daily.
The Ordeal of Mansart (1957)
The chief problem in any community cursed with crime is not the punishment of the criminal, but the preventing of the young from being trained to crime.
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