IMPORTANT QUOTATIONS - QUOTES AND ANALYSIS

The following quotations are important at various points in the story: (Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1900 1901)

1. “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.”

(pg. 7; here Booker emphasizes how the importance of education was instilled in him at a very early age.)

2. “...I think it will found to be true that there are few instances, either in slavery or freedom, in which a member of my race has been known to betray a specific trust.”

(pg. 13; Booker makes this comment as a summation for why the slaves felt no bitterness towards their white masters.)

3. “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.”

(pg. 16; This is Booker’s strong denial that the slaves really didn’t want to be free.)

4. “When we rid ourselves of prejudice or racial feeling, and look facts in the face, we must acknowledge that, not withstanding the cruelty and moral wrong of slavery, the ten million Negroes inhabiting this country, who themselves or whose ancestors went through the school of American slavery, are in a stronger and more hopeful condition, materially, intellectually, morally, and religiously, than is true of an equal number of black people in any other portion of the globe.”

(pg. 16; This is Washington’s assertion that slavery actually made his people stronger.)

5. “The great responsibility of being free, of having charge of themselves, of having to think and plan for themselves and their children, seemed to take possession of them. It was very much like suddenly turning a youth of ten or twelve years out into the world to provide for himself.”

(pg. 21; Booker presents the reality of freedom his race had to come to grips with).

6. “She (his mother) had high ambitions for her children, and a large fund of good hard, common sense which seemed to enable her to meet and master every situation. If I have done anything in life worth attention, I feel sure that I inherited the disposition from my mother.”

(pg. 27; Here, Booker gives his mother credit for his determination and drive to better himself.)

7. “This experience of a whole race beginning to go to school for the first time presents one of the most interesting studies that has ever occurred in connection with the development of any race.”

(pg. 29; Washington observes here how interesting it was for him to see how people who never been educated reacted to their chance to go to school.)

8. “Since that time I have owned many kinds of caps and hats, but never one of which I have felt so proud as of the cap made of the two pieces of cloth sewed by my mother.”

(pgs. 33-34; This is Booker’s admiration of his mother showing through once again.)

9. “There was never a time in my youth. no matter how dark and discouraging the days might be, when one resolve did not continually remain with me, and that was a determination to secure an education at any cost.”

(pg. 37; This comment emphasizes Booker’s desire to be educated.)

10. “I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.”

(pg. 39; As he is educated and thinks about the advantages white boys have, Booker comes to this conclusion and stops envying whites.)

11. “The older I grow, the more I am convinced that there is no education which one can get from and costly apparatus that is equal to that which can be gotten from contact with great men and women.”

(p. 55; This comes as Booker’s comment on his admiration for General Armstrong.)

12. “The great and prevailing idea that seemed to take possession of every one was to prepare himself to lift up the people at his home.”

(pg.62; this comment reflects how the students at Hampton were determined not only to benefit themselves, but also those with whom they lived.)

13. “I have begun everything with the idea that I could succeed, and I never had much patience with the multitudes of people who are always ready to explain why one cannot succeed.”

(pg. 66; this is Booker’s mantra - he never gives up.)

14. “It seemed to me as I watched the struggle between members of the two races, that there was no hope for our people in this country. The ‘Ku Klux’ period was, I think, the darkest period of reconstruction.”

(pg. 78; This is Booker’s analysis of the impact of the KKK.)

15. “It was cruelly wrong in the central government, at the beginning of our freedom, to fail to make provisions for the general education of our people in addition to what the states might do, so that the people would be better prepared for the duties of citizenship.”

(pg. 83; Here Booker observes how the government failed the slaves after their freedom.)

16. “No white American ever thinks that any other race is wholly civilized until he wears the white man’s clothes, eats the white man’s food, speaks the white man’s language, and professes the white man’s religion.”

(pg. 98 ; This summation came to Booker after he found himself trying to convince the Indians he taught to behave differently than their culture dictated.)

17. “ ‘They cannot degrade Frederick Douglass. The soul that is within me no man can degrade. I am not the one that is being degraded on account of this treatment, but those who are inflicting it upon me.’ ”

(pg. 100; This quote is the same assessment Booker made when he saw how generous his own people were to Indians, but how lacking in generosity white people often were to other races.)

18. “ ‘Don’t do that. That is our building. I helped put it up.’ ”

(pg. 150; this anecdote shows how proud the students of Tuskegee were to have built their own school buildings.)

19. “But gradually, by patience and hard work, we brought order out of chaos, just as will be true of any problem if we stick to it with patience and wisdom and earnest effort.

(pp. 161-162; This was Booker’s attitude as he bought Tuskegee Institute.)

20. “I learned the lesson that great men cultivate love, and that only little men cherish a spirit of hatred.”

(pg. 165; Booker’s emphasis about why he can no longer hate the white race of the South)

21. “The wrong to the Negro is temporary, but to the morals of the white man the injury is permanent.”

(pg. 165; the lesson Booker learned as part of his attempt to purge himself of any hatred towards the white race)

22. “Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him and let him know that you trust him.”

(pg. 172; This was Booker’s philosophy he wanted to pass on to his students.)

23. “It is the duty of the Negro . . . to deport himself modestly in regard to political claims, depending upon the slow but sure influences that proceed from the possession of property, intelligence, and high character for the full recognition of his political rights.”

(pg. 235; This is Bookers’ assertion that Negroes will not receive their political rights until some time passes and during that time Negroes behave in a modest manner.)

24. “There is rarely such a combination of mental and physical delight in any effort as that which comes to a public speaker when he feels that he has a great audience completely under his control.”

(pg. 243; Booker admits this delight that comes from making a great speech.)