A Classic Is A Book That Doesn't

The History Of The American Negro Is The History Of This Strife, - This Longing To Attain Self-conscious Manhood, To Merge His Double Self Into A Better And Truer Self. In This Merging He Wishes Neither Of The Older Selves To Be Lost... He Simply Wishes To Make It Possible For A Man To Be Both A Negro And An American.

There Is In This World No Such Force As The Force Of A Person Determined To Rise. The Human Soul Cannot Be Permanently Chained.

Ignorance Is A Cure For Nothing.

To Be A Poor Man Is Hard, But To Be A Poor Race In A Land Of Dollars Is The Very Bottom Of Hardships.

Is A Civilization Naturally Backward Because It Is Different? Outside Of Cannibalism, Which Can Be Matched In This Country, At Least, By Lynching, There Is No Vice And No Degradation In Native African Customs Which Can Begin To Touch The Horrors Thrust Upon Them By White Masters. Drunkenness, Terrible Diseases, Immorality, All These Things Have Been Gifts Of European Civilization.