The actual sight of a first-class house that a Negro has built is ten times more potent than pages of discussion about a house that he ought to build, or perhaps could build.
Interpretation
Seeing real achievements is far more impactful than mere discussions about potential.
Booker T. Washington emphasizes the importance of tangible accomplishments over theoretical discussions. The quote suggests that witnessing the results of hard work, particularly by marginalized communities, carries more weight and influence than simply talking about what could or should be done. It highlights the value of practical examples as motivational and transformative forces in society.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech on community development to illustrate the impact of real projects.
Leaders have devoted themselves to politics, little knowing, it seems _x000D_ that political independence disappears without economic independence _x000D_ that economic independence is the foundation of political independence.
You go to school, you study about the Germans and the French, but not about your own race. I hope the time will come when you study black history too.
Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.
I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.
If I have done anything in life worth attention, I feel sure that I inherited the disposition from my mother.
Great men cultivate love...only little men cherish a spirit of hatred
The value of achievement lies in the achieving.
I've long believed that if you're not embarrassed by your first product release, you've released too late.
I have gone through a long apprenticeship. I have gone through enough of being a nobody. I have decided that when I am a star, I will be every inch and every moment the star! Everybody from the studio gateman to the highest executive will know it.
You can't find returns in investments you haven't made.
The man who has done his best has done everything.
I didn't go into the Hall of Fame until I was a Hall of Famer. Three times I had been there, I never stepped foot inside.
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