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No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top.

— 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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To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

Bertrand Russell Marriage and Morals (1929)

Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

William James The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897)

Reason is Life's sole arbiter, the magic Laby'rinth's single clue:
Worlds lie above, beyond its ken; what crosses it can ne'er be true.

Richard Francis Burton The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî (1870)

It is the law of life that if you are kind to someone you feel happy. If you are cruel you are unhappy. And if you hurt someone, you will be hurt back.

Cary Grant Love – That’s All Cary Grant Ever Thinks About (1964)

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.