W.E.B. Du Bois

"We have got to stop fighting each other and fight the enemy."

"The color line is a product of organized greed and systematic deception."

"Nothing human is beneath our notice; nothing human is foreign to our concern."

"To be a man is hard; to be a black man is harder."

"I have sought the acquaintance and friendship of black men in this world and I like them."

"The demand is that the color line shall be drawn by the victims of this color line themselves."

"We should fear ignorance more than death."

"The future of the Negro race is insolubly bound up with the future of America."

"To promote the cause of mankind, one must believe in man."

"We seek no special privileges but the same rights which all men claim."

"The most dangerous condition in a nation is the condition of degradation."

"Every race and nation should be proud of its history and its heritage."

"I would not have you blame any one people for the complexities of history."

"The problem of the color line must be solved by the most radical and fundamental change."

"We must inculcate respect for manual labor and the dignity of work."

"The Negro is coming to self-consciousness, and this is a tremendous force."

"The highest product of American civilization is the Negro."

"To know is to possess the world; to be ignorant is to be possessed."

"I have deliberately chosen to live as a poor man for the sake of my ideals."

"The agitation of thought is the beginning of progress."

"Each generation must discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it, in relative obscurity."

"We are all of mixed blood, more or less."

"The whole question of racial relations in America resolves itself to this: what is to be done with the Negro?"

"To be Negro is to be a problem, but also to be a possibility."

"We must stop thinking of what we cannot do and start believing in what we can do."

"The American Negro has the right to demand recognition as an American."

"Patience is not an infinite resource; it has limits beyond which men will not go."

"We are the voice of the voiceless."

"I believe in working with my hands and in being independent."

"The great weapon of the future is organization."