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The English servant expects, as a rule, to be nothing but a servant, and so he perfects himself in the art to a degree that no class of servants in America has yet reached. In our country the servant expects to become, in a few years, a "master" himself.

— Booker T. Washington Up From Slavery (1901)

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More quotes by Booker T. Washington

I would permit no man, no matter what his colour might be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.

Up From Slavery (1901)

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

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

My whole life has largely been one of surprises.

Up From Slavery (1901)

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Booker T. Washington (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.