My mother helped me understand how not to show off what I knew, but how to use it so that others might benefit.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of humility in sharing knowledge for the benefit of others.
In this quote, Dorothy Height reflects on the lessons taught by her mother regarding the responsible use of knowledge. Instead of flaunting what one knows, the quote advocates for using that knowledge to support and uplift others, highlighting the value of humility and communal growth over self-promotion.
In practice
In a speech about mentorship, I could use this quote to describe the role of a mentor.
I think of my life as a unity of circles. Some are concentric, others overlap, but they all connect in some way. Sometimes the connections don't happen for years. But when they do, I marvel. As in a shimmering kaleidoscope, familiar patterns keep unfolding
Progress comes from caring more about what needs to be done than about who gets the credit
We had people of all backgrounds coming together - all races, all creeds, all colors, all status in life. And coming together there was a kind of quiet dignity and a kind of sense of caring and a feeling of joint responsibility.
There is no contradiction between effective law enforcement and respect for civil and human rights.
The Black family of the future will foster our liberation, enhance our self-esteem, and shape our ideas and goals.
We have to improve life, not just for those who have the most skills and those who know how to manipulate the system. But also for and with those who often have so much to give but never get the opportunity.
Children have to have access to books, and a lot of children can't go to a store and buy a book. We need not only our public libraries to be funded properly and staffed properly, but our school libraries. Many children can't get to a public library, and the only library they have is a school library.
Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft.
If a man keeps cherishing his old knowledge so as continually to be acquiring new, he may be a teacher of others.
The Founding Fathers in their wisdom decided that children were an unnatural strain on parents. So they provided jails called schools, equipped with tortures called an education.
You see, no one can teach anybody. The teacher spoils everything by thinking that he is teaching. Thus Vedanta says that within man is all knowledge-even in a boy it is so-and it requires only an awakening, and that much is the work of a teacher.
Let me make it clear that the Youth Employment Opportunities Act of 1961 is not primarily concerned with delinquency prevention. Rather, it is designed to help all types of young men or women who suffer deficiencies of training or opportunity which keep them unemployed.
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