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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.

— W. E. B. Du Bois The Ordeal of Mansart (1957)

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More quotes by W. E. B. Du Bois

Believe in life! Always human beings will progress to greater, broader, and fuller life.

The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.

John Brown: A Biography (1909)

I am one who tells the truth and exposes evil and seeks with Beauty for Beauty to set the world right.

The Wisdom of W.E.B. Du Bois (2003)

The time must come when, great and pressing as change and betterment may be, they do not involve killing and hurting people.

The Wisdom of W.E.B. Du Bois (2003)

Either the United States will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States.

Niagara Movement Speech (1905)

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Affectation hides three times as many virtues as charity does sins.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: W. E. B. Du Bois (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.