If Liberia has failed, then, it is no evidence of the failure of the Negro in government. It is merely evidence of the failure of slavery.

The mere imparting of information is not education. Above all things, the effort must result in making a man think and do for himself.

If the Negro in the ghetto must eternally be fed by the hand that pushes him into the ghetto, he will never become strong enough to get out of the ghetto.

Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.

If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.

No man knows what he can do until he tries.

As another has well said, to handicap a student by teaching him that his black face is a curse and that his struggle to change his condition is hopeless is the worst sort of lynching.

The real servant of the people must live among them, think with them, feel for them, and die for them.

In our so-called democracy we are accustomed to give the majority what they want rather than educate them to understand what is best for them.

For me, education means to inspire people to live more abundantly, to learn to begin with life as they find it and make it better.

The mere imparting of information is not education.

A bond between souls is ancient - older than the planet.

As life tends to become more and more distracting, let us firmly hold on to books.

The purpose of truly transcendent art is to express something you are not yet, but something that you can become.

We're to love our children for who they are, not for what we want them to become.

I saw the Supremes when they were still singing in little black skirts and white blouses.

Lenin is not comparable to any revolutionary figure in history. Revolutionaries have had ideals. Lenin has none.

I never thought that I would support myself with art - everyone in the Group of Seven had day jobs. I became a geography teacher so that I could get free field trips into the wilderness to paint.

Since I tend to write chronologically, the middle is always the place where the process is most taxing.

All angry persons are to be treated, by the prudent, as children.

Seeing, contrary to popular wisdom, isn't believing. It's where belief stops, because it isn't needed any more.