Booker T. Washington

I do not know which to put first, the effect of Tuskegee’s work on the Negro, or the effect on the attitude of the white man to the Negro.

Now this practice is not only ridiculous, but it is very hurtful to us as a race, and it should be discouraged.

We are compelled to get rid of every student here who is weak in mind, weak in morals, or weak in industry.

You cannot set proper examples unless you, yourself, are constantly employed.

I have little patience with persons who go around whining that they cannot find anything to do.

In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.

In a rich and prosperous country like America there is absolutely no excuse for persons living in idleness.

Make up your minds, whether you are to live in the city or in the country, that you are going to be constantly employed.

While doing this, you can be sure in the future, as in the past, that you and your families will be surrounded by the most patient, faithful, law-abiding, and unresentful people that the world has seen.

Such a student, if he be bright, will profit more by an experience like this than he could profit by all the books on sociology and economics that ever were written.

No idle person is ever safe, whether he be rich or poor.

I believe that we are at our best in country life--in agricultural life--and too often at our worst in city life.