The most ordinary Negro is a distinct gentleman, but it takes extraordinary training and opportunity to make the average white man anything but a hog. W. E. B. Du Bois More Quotes by W. E. B. Du Bois More Quotes From W. E. B. Du Bois Begin with art, because art tries to take us outside ourselves. It is a matter of trying to create an atmosphere and context so conversation can flow back and forth and we can be influenced by each other. W. E. B. Du Bois atmospheretryingart 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 the possibility of infinite development. W. E. B. Du Bois brothermenbelieve Between me and the other world there is ever an unasked question: unasked by some through feelings of delicacy; by others through the difficulty of rightly framing it. All, nevertheless, flutter round it. How does it feel to be a problem? W. E. B. Du Bois other-worldsfeelingschildren But art is not simply works of art; it is the spirit that knows Beauty, that has music in its soul and the color of sunsets in its headkerchiefs; that can dance on a flaming world and make the world dance, too. W. E. B. Du Bois sunsetcolorart The emancipation of man is the emancipation of labor and the emancipation W. E. B. Du Bois blackyellowmen All womanhood is hampered today because the world on which it is emerging is a world that tries to worship both virgins and mothers and in the end despises motherhood and despoils virgins. W. E. B. Du Bois mothertryingworld 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. W. E. B. Du Bois punishmentcriminalscommunity Raphael painted, Luther preached, Corneille wrote, and Milton sang; and through it all, for four hundred years, the dark captives wound to the sea amid the bleaching bones of the dead: for four hundred years the sharks followed the scurrying ships; for four hundred years America was strewn with the living and dying millions of a transplanted race; for four hundred years Ethiopia stretched forth her hands unto God. W. E. B. Du Bois racedarkamerica For education among all kinds of men always has had, and always will have, an element of danger and revolution, of dissatisfaction and discontent. W. E. B. Du Bois revolutionkindmen Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms. W. E. B. Du Bois issuesviolencethinking Believe in life! Always human beings will live and progress to greater, broader, and fuller life. W. E. B. Du Bois hopelifebelieve We cannot escape the clear fact that what is going to win in this world is reason, if this ever becomes a reasonable world. W. E. B. Du Bois winningfactsworld Among Negroes of my generation there was not only little direct acquaintance or consciously inherited knowledge of Africa, but much distaste and recoil because of what the white world taught them about the Dark Continent. There arose resentment that a group like ours, born and bred in the United States for centuries, should be regarded as Africans at all. They were, as most of them began gradually to assert, Americans. My father's father was particularly bitter about this. He would not accept an invitation to a 'Negro' picnic. He would not segregate himself in any way. W. E. B. Du Bois whitedarkfather 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. W. E. B. Du Bois racemenmean To stimulate wildly weak and untrained minds is to play with mighty fires. W. E. B. Du Bois firemindplay Lord of the springtime, Father of flower, field and fruit, smile on us in these earnest days when the work is heavy and the toil wearisome; lift up our hearts, O God, to the things worthwhile-sunshine and night, the dripping rain, the song of the birds, books and music, and the voices of our friends. Lift up our hearts to these this night and grant us Thy peace. Amen. W. E. B. Du Bois springsongfather We shall never secure emancipation from the tyranny of the white oppressor until we have achieved it in our own souls. W. E. B. Du Bois oppressionsoulwhite How hard a thing is life to the lowly and yet how human and real is it? And all this life and love and strife and failure, - is it the twilight of nightfall or the flush of some faint-dawning day? The answer lies in each of us. For somewhere in your past ... somewhere some 100 years ago?there rose from the smoldering ashes of slavery?a proud and humble family who suffered and struggled with life. A family who found the strength to endure all the indignities of life in America, and that family had the hope for a taste of her bounties in the future. W. E. B. Du Bois life-and-lovereallying Honest and earnest criticism from those whose interests are most nearly touched,- criticism of writers by readers, of government by those governed, of leaders by those led, - this is the soul of democracy and the safeguard of modern society W. E. B. Du Bois governmentleadersoul 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. W. E. B. Du Bois often-isdonecalling
