Up from Slavery: An Autobiography

by Booker T. Washington

Still, as I look back now over the entire period of our freedom, I cannot help feeling that it would have been wiser if some plan could have been put in operation which would have made the possession of a certain amount of education or property, or both, a test for the exercise of the franchise, and a way provided by which this test should be made to apply honestly and squarely to both the white and black races.

My experience has been that the time to test a true gentleman is to observe him when he is in contact with individuals of a race that is less fortunate than his own.

It means a great deal, I think, to start off on a foundation which one has made for one’s self.

Any one who is willing to work ten hours a day at the brick-yard, or in the laundry, through one or two years, in order that he or she may have the privilege of studying academic branches for two hours in the evening, has enough bottom to warrant being further educated.

policy. As a rule, the place to criticise the South, when criticism is necessary, is in the South—not in Boston.

No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities.

No man whose vision is bounded by colour can come into contact with what is highest and best in the world.

The number of people who stand ready to consume one’s time, to no purpose, is almost countless.

I have learned, in some degree at least, to disregard the old maxim which says, “Do not get others to do that which you can do yourself.” My motto, on the other hand, is, “Do not do that which others can do as well.”

try to look after the little ills, with the idea that if I take care of the little ills the big ones will not come.

I have said that I make it a rule to finish up each day’s work before leaving it.