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Suppose to-day Negroes do steal; who was it that for centuries made stealing a virtue by stealing their labor?

— Booker T. Washington

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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.

All Booker T. Washington quotes →

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When we see a great man desiring power instead of his real goal we soon recognize that he is sick, or more precisely that his attitude to his work is sick.

Martin Buber What is Man? (1938)

The fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows.

Robert Frost A Boy's Will (1913)

In a society such as ours, it is almost impossible for a person to be responsible.

Jacques Ellul The Betrayal by Technology (1993)

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.