More Quotes by W. E. B. Du Bois
In 1956, I shall not go to the polls. I have not registered. I believe that democracy has so far disappeared in the United States that no 'two evils' exist. There is but one evil party with two names, and it will be elected despite all I can do or say.
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.
There is but one coward on earth, and that is the coward that dare not know.
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.
I believe that all men, black and brown, and white, are brothers, varying, through Time and Opportunity, in form and gift and feature, but differing in no essential particular, and alike in soul and in the possibility of infinite development.
To stimulate wildly weak and untrained minds is to play with mighty fires.
There can be no perfect democracy curtailed by color, race, or poverty. But with all we accomplish all, even peace.
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.
The future woman must have a life work and economic independence. She must have the right of motherhood at her own discretion.
The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.
