Quotes by Booker T. Washington

About Booker T. Washington:

Booker Taliaferro Washington was an African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor to presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American community.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

Booker T. Washington

I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.

Booker T. Washington

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

Booker T. Washington

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.

Booker T. Washington

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.

Booker T. Washington

In my contact with people, I find that, as a rule, it is only the little, narrow people who live for themselves, who never read good books, who do not travel, who never open up their souls in a way to permit them to come into contact with other souls...

Booker T. Washington

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

Booker T. Washington

I knew that, in a large degree, we were trying an experiment--that of testing whether or not it was possible for Negroes to build up and control the affairs of a large education institution. I knew that if we failed it wold injure the whole race.

Booker T. Washington

If you can't read, it's going to be hard to realize dreams.

Booker T. Washington

At the bottom of education, at the bottom of politics, even at the bottom of religion, there must be for our race economic independence.

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.

Booker T. Washington

There is no power on earth that can neutralize the influence of a high, simple and useful life.

Booker T. Washington

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 had to overcome while trying to succeed.

Booker T. Washington

Dignify and glorify common labor. It is at the bottom of life that we must begin, not at the top.

Booker T. Washington

Success in life is founded upon attention to the small things rather than to the large things; to the every day things nearest to us rather than to the things that are remote and uncommon.

Booker T. Washington

No greater injury can be done to any youth than to let him feel that because he belongs to this or that race he will be advanced in life regardless of his own merits or efforts.

Booker T. Washington

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

Booker T. Washington

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

Booker T. Washington

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Booker T. Washington

No man, who continues to add something to the material, intellectual and moral well-being of the place in which he lives, is left long without proper reward.

Booker T. Washington

Author Bio

  • NameBooker T. Washington
  • DescriptionAfrican-American educator, author, orator, and advisor
  • AliasesBooker Taliaferro Washington; Booker Washington
  • BornApril 5, 1856
  • DiedNovember 14, 1915
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionEducator; Writer; Autobiographer; Educationist