Booker T. Washington

Don't think that you are too good to help them.

Don't go home and feel ashamed of your parents because you think they don't know as much as you think you know.

Don't go home and feel that you are better than the rest of the folks in your neighbourhood because you have been away at school.

If you do this, your lives are going to be a constant going forward; for, I repeat, your lives are going to be one thing or the other, continually going backward or continually going forward.

We want Tuskegee students to go out from here and establish homes that will be models in every respect for those about them--homes that will show that the lives of the persons who have established them are models for the lives of those who…

Nothing is so disheartening--there is nothing so discouraging--as to see a man or woman settle down in a home, and then not to see that home grow more beautiful, inside and outside;--to see it, instead of this, each year grow dingy and…

We want to see you grow in reputation for being honest, conscientious, intelligent, hard-working; no matter in what capacity you are employed.

Then, too, when you go out and get employment--no matter of what kind it may be--we want to see you grow better in that employment; we want to see you advance in ability, commanding always a larger salary, advancing in value to those who…

Then, and this is more important still, we want you to take this habit of growth--this disposition to grow in the right direction--out with you from the school, and scatter it as an influence for good wherever you go.

I want you to be more conscientious in your thoughts and in your work, and with regard to your duty toward others.

I want to find you each day more thoughtful of others, and less selfish.

If you are not doing this, you are going backward, you are going in the wrong direction.