"She at first lacked the depravity indispensable to shutting me up in mental darkness"

"Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me."

"Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these heavenly qualities. Under its influence, the tender heart became stone, and the lamb-like disposition gave way to one of tiger-like fierceness."

"...education and slavery were incompatible."

"...in return, would give me that more valuable bread of knowledge."

"It is almost an unpardonable offence to teach slaves to read in this Christian country ."

"I read them over and over again with unabated interest. They gave tongue to interesting thoughts of my own soul."

"The moral I gained from the dialogue was the power of truth over the conscience..."

"The reading of these documents enabled me to utter my thoughts, and to meet the arguments brought forward..."

"The reading of these documents enabled me to utter my thoughts, and to meet the arguments brought forward..."

"The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers."

"...learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing... Anything, no matter what to to get rid of thinking!"

"I saw nothing without seeing it

I heard nothing without hearing it.

I felt nothing without feeling it

I found myself regretting my own existence and wishing myself dead"

"The light broke upon me by degrees."

"Thus, after a long and tedious effort for years, I finally succeeded in learning how to write.."

"I became increasingly frustrated at not being able to express what I wanted to convey..."

"I had commanded attention when I said something. But now, trying to write simple English, I not only wasn't articulate, I wasn't even functional."

"Bimbi had always taken charge of any conversation he was in, and I tried to emulate him."

"When I just skipped those words [I didn't know], of course, I really ended up with little idea of what the book said."

"I woke up the next morning, thinking about those words - immensely proud to realize I that not only had I written so much at one time, but I'd written words that I never knew were in the world."

"...it was inevitable that as my word base broadened, I could for the first time...understand what the book was saying."

"In fact, up to then, I never had been so truly free in my life"

"When white men had written history books, the black man simply had been left out."

"I never will forget how shocked I was when I began reading about slavery's total horror."

"Nat Turner wasn't going around preaching pie-in-the-sky and "non-violent freedom for the black man."

"I read the histories of various nations, which opened my eyes gradually, then wider and wider..."

"Reading had changed forever the course of my life."

"I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity."

"Students can 'read' but when it comes time to think deeply about what they have read, they have difficulty diving below the surface."

"Increasingly, they have trouble with heavier intellectual lifting. "

"Students are not partaking in those critical activities that stretch and deepen their brains, Instead, they often gravitate to those behaviors that offer instant gratification."

"...marched from activity to activity, even the schedule of the day doesn't allow time for anyone to reflect."

"when we deny students the opportunity to read long, complex works, we are starving a part of their brains, and ...producing kids ...who can read but who cannot get below the surface..."

"If we want our students to be complex thinkers, they need to be challenged to read long, complex texts."

"In 38 of 41 studies, students given free reading time did as well or better in reading comprehension tests than students given traditional skill-based reading instruction"

"Students who read a novel with many unique words actually learned the meaning of those words from context clues only"

"...if those students who enter schools linguistically impoverished...do not read extensively, they will never catch up."

"SSR is actually a valuable investment in test preparation"

"SSR is necessary to allow students an opportunity to build their prior knowledge and background"

"...some of our weaker brethren are actually afraid to thunder against color discrimination..."

"...some of our weaker brethren are actually afraid to thunder against color discrimination..."

"with the right to vote goes everything"

"seperation...based simply on race and color,

is un-American, undemocratic, and silly"

"Either the United States will destroy ignorance or

ignorance will destroy the United States."

"work is not necessarily education.

Education is the development of power and ideal"

"we want our children trained as intelligent human being should be"

"They have a right to know, to think, to aspire."

"We do believe in...that willingness to sacrifice money, reputation, and life itself on the altar of right."

"no bribe of money or notoriety, no promise of wealth or fame, is worth the surrender of a people's manhood or the loss of a man's self respect."

"Stand up for the right, prove yourselves worthy of you heritage..."

"We will not be satisfied to take one jot or tittle less than our full manhood rights."

"No enterprise seeking the material, civil, or moral welfare of this section can disregard this element of our population and reach the highest success"

"Cast down your bucket where you are."

"when it comes to business pure and simple it is in the South that the Negro is given a man's chance in the commercial world"

"we shall prosper in proportion as we learn to

draw the line between the superficial and the substantial"

"cast it down in making friends...of the people of all races"

"it is at the bottom of life we must begin and not the top"

"Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities."

"...with education of head, hand, and heart..

they will buy your surplus land,

make blossom the waste places in your fields,

and run your factories."

"...your families will be surrounded by

the most patient, faithful, law-abiding, and un-resentful

people that the world has seen"

"In our humble way, we shall stand by you with a devotion that no foreigner can approach, ready to lay down our lives...in defense of yours."

"We can be as separate as fingers, yet one as the hand..."

"Nearly sixteen millions of hands will aid in pulling the load upwards,

or they will pull against you the load downwards."

"We shall constitute 1/3 and much more of the ignorance and crime of the south, or 1/3 of its intelligence and progress"

"let us as a race teach the world that we have learned

the great lesson of calmness and self-control"

"every iota of influence that we possess should be used to get rid of the criminal and loafing element of our people and to make decent law-abiding citizens"

"Be careful not to assist in lighting a fire which you will have no ability to put out."

"We should not fail to give due credit to those of the white race who stood manfully and courageously on the side of law and order..."

"I have said we must differentiate between white people in the South...

The country must learn to differentiate among black people."

"There is a vicious class that disgraces us."

"any policy that does not seek to harmonize the two races...

is unwise and dangerous"

"Any child can cry and fret, but it requires a full-grown man to create to construct."

"We must become, in an increasing degree creators of our own careers"

"for the sake of the hundreds of thousands,

trembling under violence, I cannot be silent."

"...social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action."

"It is how we use our lives, that determines what kind of men we are."

"...the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness,

is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally non-violent struggle for justice."

"...to be a man is to suffer for others."

"You are what you repeatedly do, therefore excellence ought to be a habit, not an act."

"Pride is the burden of a foolish person."

"Good enough isn’t good enough if it can be better, and better isn’t good enough if it can be best."

"just stand. You keep standing. No matter how rough the sea, keep standing."

"how you do anything is how you do everything."

"Enhance your life every day by seeking that wisdom

and asking yourself every night “How am I living?”

"Honor all those who have gone before you, who have invested in you."

"When you hit rock bottom remember this: while you’re struggling, rock bottom can also be a great foundation on which to build and on which to grow."