Either America will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States. W. E. B. Du Bois More Quotes by W. E. B. Du Bois More Quotes From W. E. B. Du Bois There is in this world no such force as the force of a person determined to rise. The human soul cannot be permanently chained. W. E. B. Du Bois determination success peace Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the seed time, now are the hours of work, and tomorrow comes the harvest and the playtime. W. E. B. Du Bois harvest-time future years Strive for that greatness of spirit that measures life not by its disappointments but by its possibilities. W. E. B. Du Bois greatness disappointment spirit There is no force equal to a woman determined to rise W. E. B. Du Bois equal determined force Children learn more from what you are than what you teach. W. E. B. Du Bois teacher peace children 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. W. E. B. Du Bois men philosophy ideas Nothing in the world is easier in the United States than to accuse a black man of crime. W. E. B. Du Bois united-states black men We must complain. Yes, plain, blunt complaint, ceaseless agitation, unfailing exposure of dishonesty and wrong - this is the ancient, unerring way to liberty and we must follow it. W. E. B. Du Bois agitation liberty complaining Daily the Negro is coming more and more to look upon law and justice, not as protecting safeguards, but as sources of humiliation and oppression. The laws are made by men who have little interest in him; they are executed by men who have absolutely no motive for treating the black people with courtesy or consideration; and, finally, the accused law-breaker is tried, not by his peers, but too often by men who would rather punish ten innocent Negroes than let one guilty one escape. W. E. B. Du Bois law men people 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. W. E. B. Du Bois party names believe To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships. W. E. B. Du Bois land race men Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done. W. E. B. Du Bois harvest-time done today Education must not simply teach work-it must teach life. W. E. B. Du Bois working-it teach thinking Today I see more clearly than yesterday that the back of the problem of race and color lies a greater problem which both obscures and implements it: and that is the fact that so many civilized persons are willing to live in comfort even if the price of this is poverty, ignorance, and disease of the majority of their fellow men. W. E. B. Du Bois ignorance men lying 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. W. E. B. Du Bois brother men believe 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 cost spiritual needs I am especially glad of the divine gift of laughter: it has made the world human and lovable, despite all its pain and wrong. W. E. B. Du Bois laughter pain world 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 pay thinking 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 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 winning men
