More Quotes by W. E. B. Du Bois
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.
There is no force equal to a woman determined to rise
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.
I am especially glad of the divine gift of laughter: it has made the world human and lovable, despite all its pain and wrong.
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.
We cannot escape the clear fact that what is going to win in this world is reason, if this ever becomes a reasonable world.
The cause of war is preparation for war.
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.
Most men today cannot conceive of a freedom that does not involve somebody's slavery.
The worker must work for the glory of his handiwork, not simply for pay; the thinker must think for truth, not for fame.
