Booker T. Washington: “Let it be possible for you to say: "I have put my whole soul into my study, into my work, into whatever I have…”

I pity from the bottom of my heart any nation or body of people that is so unfortunate as to get entangled in the net of slavery.

As a rule, not only did the members of my race entertain no feelings of bitterness against the whites before and during the war, but there are many instances of Negroes tenderly caring for their former masters and mistresses who for some…

The picture of several dozen boys and girls in a schoolroom engaged in study made a deep impression upon me, and I had the feeling that to get into a schoolhouse and study in this way would be about the same as getting into paradise.

I cannot remember having slept in a bed until after our family was declared free by the Emancipation Proclamation.