Booker T. Washington

The white man who begins by cheating a Negro usually ends by cheating a white man.

The white man who begins to break the law by lynching a Negro soon yields to the temptation to lynch a white man.

From the first I have sought to impress the students with the idea that Tuskegee is not my institution, or that of the officers, but that it is their institution, and that they have as much interest in it as any of the trustees or…

I have further sought to have them feel that I am at the institution as their friend and adviser, and not as their overseer.

Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him.

Every individual responds to confidence, and this is not more true of any race than of the Negroes.

In proportion as one loses himself in the way, in the same degree does he get the highest happiness out of his work.

He knew that the people in the North who gave money gave it for the purpose of helping the whole cause of Negro civilization, and not merely for the advancement of any one school.

After considerable experience in coming into contact with wealthy and noted men, I have observed that those who have accomplished the greatest results are those who “keep under the body”; are those who never grow excited or lose…

In order to be successful in any kind of undertaking, I think the main thing is for one to grow to the point where he completely forgets himself; that is, to lose himself in a great cause.

From the beginning of our work to the present I have always had the feeling, and lose no opportunity to impress our teachers with the same idea, that the school will always be supported in proportion as the inside of the institution is…

When I first came to Tuskegee, I determined that I would make it my home, that I would take as much pride in the right actions of the people of the town as any white man could do, and that I would, at the same time, deplore the wrong-doing…