Grow into the habit of talking about the bright side of life.
Booker T. Washington
The Public Record
Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, author, and orator. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the primary leader in the African-American community and of the contemporary Black elite.
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This I succeeded in doing to such an extent that I was soon informed that I would be allowed the full cost of my board in return for my work.
No matter how much we may praise its proportions and enjoy its beauty, it dies unless its roots and fibres touch and have their foundation in Mother Earth.
Learn that it is no disgrace to obey those in authority.
Try to get into a frame of mind where you will be constantly seeing and calling attention to the strong and beautiful things which you observe in the life and work of your teachers.
It is the weak individual, as a rule, who is constantly calling attention to the other side--to the dark and discouraging things of life.
For some time, while a student at Hampton, I possessed but a single pair of socks, but when I had worn these till they became soiled, I would wash them at night and hang them by the fire to dry, so that I might wear them again the next…
I want you to go out from this institution so trained and so developed that you will be constantly looking for the bright, encouraging and beautiful things in life.
He must get such training that he will know where to go and get facts, rather than try to train himself to hold all facts in his head.
The matter of having meals at regular hours, of eating on a tablecloth, using a napkin, the use of the bath-tub and of the tooth-brush, as well as the use of sheets upon the bed, were all new to me.
Because of his independence he leads his people instead of having to cater to their whims.
Each individual who wishes to succeed must get that kind of discipline.