Booker T. Washington

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles he has overcome trying to succeed.

Any man's life will be filled with constant and unexpected encouragement if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day.

Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.

There is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.

Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.

You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.

It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercise of those privileges.

In later years, I confess that I do not envy the white boy as I once did. I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.

No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.

The world should not pass judgement upon the Negro, and especially the Negro youth, too quickly or too harshly. The Negro boy has obstacles, discouragements and temptations to battle with that are little known to those not situated as he is.

With few exceptions, the Negro youth must work harder and must perform his tasks even better than a with youth in order to secure recognition. But out of the hard and unusual struggle through which he is compelled to pass, he gets a strength, a confidence, that one missed whose pathway is comparatively smooth by reason of brith and race.

We all should rise, above the clouds of ignorance, narrowness, and selfishness.

I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.

One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him.