Booker T. Washington

The possession of a decent house insures us a certain amount of proper comfort.

They never will own a house, simply because they have got into the habit of giving excuses, instead of trying to get to own a home.

No person can do his best work, or can be of the greatest service to himself and to his fellow-beings, until he is able to live in a decent, comfortable house.

In order to get hold of the spiritually best and highest things in life there are certain material things that we are compelled to have first.

In the first place the getting hold of money, the getting hold of a competency, insures us the possession of certain influences that we can get in no other way.

I am not able to understand how a race that does not own a single steam railroad, that does not own a single street-car line, that owns hardly a bank, that does not own a single block of houses in a large city--I am not able to understand…

Now this may seem to you a very materialistic thought for me to emphasize this evening--the saving of money--but to us, as a race, it is of vital importance.

The people who succeed are, very largely, those who learn to economize time, in the ways I have referred to, and those who also have learned to save, not only time, but money.

You can do this in the most efficient manner by yourselves being the highest possible example.

Wherever you go, we wish you by your own actions, by your advice, by your influence, to try and disprove and counteract that hurtful reputation.

And so, in one way or another, a large proportion of us get the reputation that we cannot be depended upon for faithful, regular, efficient service; and that hurts the race.

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.