W.E.B. Du Bois

"The Negro woman is the most neglected factor in American civilization."

"In anything that depends on human effort there must always be the very best of human beings."

"I believe in the Negro race."

"Art among a race is the index of the race's soul."

"The aspiration of the world has always been towards the development of individuality."

"We need in every community a group of angelic troublemakers."

"The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression."

"My country? It has steered me wrong. I needed Africa."

"I love the beauty of holiness and the holiness of beauty."

"Effort means work. Work means progress."

"The world still regards the results of Negro effort with some amusement."

"Religion is a singular thing; it means different things to different men."

"The truth is, we are not asked to swear allegiance to the flag; we are asked to save its soul."

"There is but one coward on earth and that is the coward that abandons his right."

"Once the object of ambition is gained, it loses its potency."

"I do not despair. I have tasted the intoxicating draught of power."

"The reason that we often fail is because we forget our allies."

"Every Negro in this land ought to feel equal to every other Negro."

"I have sought to write with careful truth and fidelity."

"For this last half century I have been seeking to understand the Negro."

"The world has never sufficiently realized that woman power is as great as man power."

"The essence of friendship is entire unconstrained intercourse."

"Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them."

"The problem of the color-line will be one of the central problems facing the world in the twentieth century."

"I have always believed that the capacity for growth is the most important quality any human being can possess."

"The very first thing we must put into the heads of our children is the idea of their personal power."

"To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a rich land is the very bottom of hardships."

"I believe firmly in the future of my race and in the destiny of my country."

"The Negro should strive with all his might to make his life have meaning and purpose."

"The function of the educated is not to create sentiment but to create thought."