Herein lies the tragedy of the age: not that men are poor, — all men know something of poverty; not that men are wicked, — who is good? not that men are ignorant, — what is Truth? Nay, but that men know so little of men.
W.E.B. Du BoisTags: truth knowledge humanity ignorance poverty wickedness
There is but one coward on earth, and that is the coward that dare not know.
W.E.B. Du BoisMy 'morals' were sound, even a bit puritanic, but when a hidebound old deacon inveighed against dancing I rebelled. By the time of graduation I was still a 'believer' in orthodox religion, but had strong questions which were encouraged at Harvard. In Germany I became a freethinker and when I came to teach at an orthodox Methodist Negro school I was soon regarded with suspicion, especially when I refused to lead the students in public prayer. When I became head of a department at Atlanta, the engagement was held up because again I balked at leading in prayer. I refused to teach Sunday school. When Archdeacon Henry Phillips, my last rector, died, I flatly refused again to join any church or sign any church creed. From my 30th year on I have increasingly regarded the church as an institution which defended such evils as slavery, color caste, exploitation of labor and war. I think the greatest gift of the Soviet Union to modern civilization was the dethronement of the clergy and the refusal to let religion be taught in the public schools.
W.E.B. Du BoisTags: questions morals evil war civilization atheist creed freethinker exploitation slavery rebel clergy germany atlanta deacon harvard orthodox orthodox-religion public-prayer public-school puritanic soviet-union ussr
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...
W.E.B. Du BoisTags: progress identity african-american dubois pragmatism
I believe that all men, black, brown, and white, are brothers.
W.E.B. Du BoisThe cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.
W.E.B. Du BoisThe power of the ballot we need in sheer defense,
else what shall save us from a second slavery?
Children learn more from what you are than what you teach.
W.E.B. Du BoisOne ever feels his twoness, -- an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.
W.E.B. Du BoisTags: identity dubois pragmatism
The world still wants to ask that a woman primarily be pretty and if she is not, the mob pouts and asks querulously, 'What else are women for?
W.E.B. Du BoisPage 1 of 5.
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