Booker T. Washington on the race grievance industry

There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs-partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.

~ Booker T. Washington, 1911

Booker T. Washington
1940

Thomas Edison on persistence

The first requisite of success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem without growing weary.

~ Thomas Edison, inventor

Thomas A. Edison
1947

Mark Twain on innovation

You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.

~ Mark Twain, novelist, journalist

Samuel L. Clemens
1940

Ralph Waldo Emerson on conformity

A man must consider what a rich realm he abdicates when he becomes a conformist.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist

Ralph Waldo Emerson
1940

George Washington Carver on excuses

Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.

~ George Washington Carver, botanist and chemist

George Washington Carver
1948

Alexander Graham Bell on opportunity

When one door closes, another opens.  But we often look so long and so regretfully at the closed door that we cannot see the one that has opened for us.

~ Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell
1940

Horace Mann on public education

We who are engaged in the sacred cause of education are entitled to look upon all parents as having given hostages to our cause.

~ Horace Mann

Horace Mann
1940

Will Rogers on government

Thank goodness we don't get all the government we pay for.

~ Will Rogers

Will Rogers
1948