My whole life has largely been one of surprises. I believe that any man's life will be filled with constant, unexpected encouragements of this kind i… - Booker T. Washington

Character, not circumstances, makes the man. It is more important that we be prepared for voting than that we vote, more important that we be prepared to hold office than that we hold office, more important that we be prepared for the highest recognition than that we be recognized.

Education is not a thing apart from life — not a “system,” nor a philosophy; it is direct teaching how to live and how to work.

During the whole of the Reconstruction period our people throughout the South looked to the Federal Government for everything, very much as a child looks to its mother. This was not unnatural. The central government gave them freedom, and the whole Nation had been enriched for more than two centuries by the labour of the Negro.