More Quotes by W. E. B. Du Bois
There can be no perfect democracy curtailed by color, race, or poverty. But with all we accomplish all, even peace.
Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done.
The future woman must have a life work and economic independence. She must have the right of motherhood at her own discretion.
One ever feels his twoness - an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.
One is astonished in the study of history at the recurrence of the idea that evil must be forgotten, distorted, skimmed over. We must not remember that Daniel Webster got drunk but only that he was a splendid constitutional lawyer. We must forget that George Washington was a slave owner . . . and simply remember the things we regard as creditable and inspiring. The difficulty, of course, with this philosophy is that history loses its value as an incentive and example; it paints perfect man and noble nations, but it does not tell the truth.
Strive for that greatness of spirit that measures life not by its disappointments but by its possibilities.
The cause of war is preparation for war.
To stimulate wildly weak and untrained minds is to play with mighty fires.
Would America have been America without her Negro people?
To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.
