Booker T. Washington

I do not believe that a man can be so honest and faithful about his work and be guilty of a crime.

If I could put my hand on a thousand such persons as that, we could find employment for all of them as soon as they got their diplomas.

It is this trait in the New England character that has come to make the very name itself of that part of the country a synonym for success.

It taught me how the people of New England have educated their consciences so that they cannot allow themselves to let even the smallest thing go undone or be improperly done.

It is when you think that no one is going to see you washing dishes, or getting dirt out of crevices, that I am afraid you are going to fail.

But where I fear for your success is when you come to the performance of the small duties--the duties which you think no one else will know about, the things which no one will see you do.

When the people connected with this institution can bring themselves up to that point, I have no fear for the success of the institution; and it can succeed only as they do bring their consciences up to that point.

It takes a person with a conscience, when there are public men of note here, a great many strangers and many things to attract attention, to be so mindful of her duty that she will stay behind and wash dishes when every one else is in…

That we have teachers here whose hearts are so much in their work that they are willing to do such things as this gives me great faith in the future of this school as the years go on.

The success of the whole depends upon having every person connected with the institution do his or her whole duty.

So, throughout all kinds of life, as throughout the life of nature, everything is dependent upon something else for its success.

Without vegetable life we could not have animal life; without mineral life we could not have vegetable life.