It is not for the food, the room, or the minor things that you have come here; it is to get something into your minds and hearts that will make you better, that will stand by you and hold you up, and make you useful all through life.
Washington articulates that the true purpose of attending the institution is to gain knowledge and character, not to focus on minor inconveniences.
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More from Booker T. Washington
By it a race must rise or fall, succeed or fail, and in the last analysis mere sentiment counts for little.
If my life in the past has meant anything in the lifting up of my people and the bringing about of better relations between your race and mine, I assure you from this day it will mean doubly more.
The more I come into contact with wealthy people, the more I believe that they are growing in the direction of looking upon their money simply as an instrument which God has placed in their hand for doing good with.
We try to keep constantly in mind the fact that the worth of the school is to be judged by its graduates.