W. E. B. Du Bois Quotes - Page 2

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• I believe in Liberty for all men: the space to stretch their arms and their souls; the right to breathe and the right to vote, the freedom to choose their friends, enjoy the sunshine, and ride on the railroads, uncursed by color; thinking, dreaming, working as they will in a kingdom of beauty and love.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Dream, Believe, Sunshine

  W. E. B. Du Bois (2010). “Darkwater: The Givens Collection”, p.31, Simon and Schuster

  26 Copy quote

• This the American black man knows: his fight here is a fight to the finish. Either he dies or wins. If he wins it will be by no subterfuge or evasion of amalgamation . He will enter modern civilization here in America as a black man on terms of perfect and unlimited equality with any white man, or he will enter not at all. Either extermination root and branch, or absolute equality. There can be no compromise. This is the last great battle of the west.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Fighting, Men, Winning

  "Black Reconstruction in America: Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880".

  84 Copy quote

• There is but one coward on earth, and that is the coward that dare not know.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Courage, Coward, Earth

  W. E. B. Du Bois (2014). “Dusk of Dawn (The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois)”, p.62, Oxford University Press

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• The cause of war is preparation for war.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  War, Preparation, Causes

  W. E. B. Du Bois (2012). “Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil”, p.26, Courier Corporation

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• There may often be excuse for doing things poorly in this world, but there is never any excuse for calling a poorly done thing, well done.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Often Is, Calling, Done

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• Oppression costs the oppressor too much if the oppressed stands up and protests. The protest need not be merely physical-the throwing of stones and bullets-if it is mental, spiritual; if it expresses itself in silent, persistent dissatisfaction, the cost to the oppressor is terrific.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Spiritual, Needs, Cost

  189 Copy quote

• The worker must work for the glory of his handiwork, not simply for pay; the thinker must think for truth, not for fame.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Work, Thinking, Pay

  W. E. B. Du Bois (2014). “The Souls of Black Folk: The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois”, p.69, Oxford University Press

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• No universal selfishness can bring social good to all.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Selfishness, Social, Social Good

  W. E. B. Du Bois (2011). “Dusk of Dawn: An Essay Toward an Autobiography of a Race Concept”, p.20, Transaction Publishers

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• The chief problem in any community cursed with crime is not the punishment of the criminals, but the preventing of the young from being trained to crime.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Punishment, Community, Criminals

  W. E. B. Du Bois (2014). “The Souls of Black Folk: The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois”, p.115, Oxford University Press

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• It is the wind and the rain, O God, the cold and the storm that make this earth of yours to blossom and bear its fruit. So in our lives it is storm and stress and hurt and suffering that make real men and women bring the world's work to its highest perfection.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Hurt, Stress, Real

  180 Copy quote

• Unfortunately there was one thing that the white South feared more than Negro dishonesty, ignorance, and incompetency, and that was Negro honesty, knowledge, and efficiency.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Honesty, Ignorance, Knowledge

  W. E. B. Du Bois (2007). “The Negro”, p.130, Cosimo, Inc.

  107 Copy quote

• Believe in life! Always human beings will live and progress to greater, broader, and fuller life.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Life, Hope, Believe

  Last message (written 26 June, 1957) read at his funeral, 1963, in Journal of Negro History Apr. 1964

  34 Copy quote

• A little less complaint and whining, and a little more dogged work and manly striving, would do us more credit than a thousand civil rights bills.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Work, Rights, Credit

  W. E. B. Du Bois (2014). “The Problem of the Color Line at the Turn of the Twentieth Century: The Essential Early Essays”, p.59, Oxford University Press

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• Whether you like it or not the millions are here, and here they will remain. If you do not lift them up, they will pull you down... Education must not simply teach work - it must teach life.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Teacher, Teaching, You Like It

  W.E.B. Du Bois, Bob Blaisdell (2013). “W. E. B. Du Bois: Selections from His Writings”, p.60, Courier Corporation

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• The favorite device of the devil, ancient and modern, is to force a human being into a more or less artificial class, accuse the class of unnamed and unnameable sin, and then damn any individual in the alleged class, however innocent he may be.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Class, Justice, Diversity

  84 Copy quote

• The theory of democratic government is not that the will of the people is always right, but rather that normal human beings of average intelligence will, if given a chance, learn the right and best course by bitter experience.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Government, Average, People

  W. E. B. Du Bois (2014). “Black Folk Then and Now (The Oxford W.E.B. Du Bois): An Essay in the History and Sociology of the Negro Race”, p.174, Oxford University Press

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• Lord of the springtime, Father of flower, field and fruit, smile on us in these earnest days when the work is heavy and the toil wearisome; lift up our hearts, O God, to the things worthwhile-sunshine and night, the dripping rain, the song of the birds, books and music, and the voices of our friends. Lift up our hearts to these this night and grant us Thy peace. Amen.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Song, Spring, Father

  W. E. B. Du Bois (1980). “Prayers for Dark People”

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• Lord, make us mindful of the little things that grow and blossom in these days to make the world beautiful for us.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Beauty, Beautiful, Religion

  W. E. B. Du Bois (1980). “Prayers for Dark People”

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• Would America have been America without her Negro people?

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  America, People, Civil Rights

  W. E. B. Du Bois, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington (2012). “Three African-American Classics: Up from Slavery, The Souls of Black Folk and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, p.329, Courier Corporation

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• The power of the ballot we need in sheer defense, else what shall save us from a second slavery?

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Needs, Defense, Slavery

  W. E. B. Du Bois (2012). “The Souls of Black Folk”, p.7, Courier Corporation

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• We shall never secure emancipation from the tyranny of the white oppressor until we have achieved it in our own souls.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  White, Soul, Oppression

  40 Copy quote

• The main thing is the YOU beneath the clothes and skin--the ability to do, the will to conquer, the determination to understand and know this great, wonderful, curious world.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Determination, Clothes, Skins

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• Most men in this world are colored. A belief in humanity means a belief in colored men. The future world will, in all reasonable probability, be what colored men make it.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Mean, Men, Race

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• The emancipation of man is the emancipation of labor and the emancipation
  of labor is the freeing of that basic majority of workers who are yellow, brown and
  black.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Men, Yellow, Black

  W. E. B. Du Bois (2013). “Black Reconstruction in America: Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880”, p.13, Transaction Publishers

  69 Copy quote

• The future woman must have a life work and economic independence. She must have the right of motherhood at her own discretion.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Work, Future, Motherhood

  W. E. B. Du Bois (2012). “Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil”, p.96, Courier Corporation

  23 Copy quote

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