You are now, as it were, at the parting of the ways--you are going to make these habits a part of yourselves, or you are going to let them escape you forever, and be weak in a measure all your lives for not having made them a part of yourselves.
Washington warns that individuals are at a critical juncture where they must choose to adopt healthy habits or risk lifelong weakness.
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More from Booker T. Washington
I have never seen one who did not want to be free, or one who would return to slavery.
He was simply another unfortunate victim of the institution which the Nation unhappily had engrafted upon it at that time.
I do not know how many have noticed it, but I think that it will be found to be true that there are few instances, either in slavery or freedom, in which a member of my race has been known to betray a specific trust.
Even to this day I can recall accurately the tortures that I underwent when putting on one of these garments.