Home / Authors / W. E. B. Du Bois

W. E. B. Du Bois

W. E. B. Du Bois Quotes

Historian

W. E. B. Du Bois was an influential American historian, sociologist, civil rights activist, and writer. Born on February 23, 1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois is renowned for his advocacy for the rights of African Americans. He co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and was a prominent figure in the civil rights movement. His seminal work, 'The Souls of Black Folk,' remains a foundational text in African American literature and thought.

Filter quotes by topic

All Men World Black Humans Race Ifs People White Believe Soul America Social Justice Color Culture I Believe Justice Knows Years Black History Doe

Famous W. E. B. Du Bois Quotes

“The severest charge that can be brought against the Christian education of the Negro in the South during the last thirty years is the reckless way in which sap-headed young fellows, without ability, and, in some cases, without character, have been urged and pushed into the ministry.”

Way Years Has Beens Character Christian Lasts Young Ability Cases Atheism Fellows South Positive Atheism Thirty Ministry Reckless Thirty Years Sap Christian Education

Author:W. E. B. Du Bois

“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.”

Years War School Lasts Evil Church Teach Color Labor Died Institutions Slavery Sunday Creeds Exploitation Castes Sunday School

Author:W. E. B. Du Bois

“And yet not a dream, but a mighty reality- a glimpse of the higher life, the broader possibilities of humanity, which is granted to the man who, amid the rush and roar of living, pauses four short years to learn what living means”

Men Years Mean Dream Reality Humanity Four Possibility Higher Granted Pauses Glimpse

Author:W. E. B. Du Bois

“Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the seed time, now are the hours of work, and tomorrow comes the harvest and the playtime.”

Years Done Today Action Hours Greater Tomorrow Fit Future Seasons Seeds Accepted Harvest Live In The Moment Convenient Best Work Usefulness Harvest Time Playtime

Book:Prayers for Dark People

Source: Prayers for Dark People

“How shall Integrity face Oppression? What shall Honesty do in the face of Deception, Decency in the face of Insult, Self-Defense before Blows? How shall Desert and Accomplishment meet Despising, Detraction, and Lies? What shall Virtue do to meet Brute Force? There are so many answers and so contradictory; and such differences for those on the one hand who meet questions similar to this once a year or once a decade, and those who face them hourly and daily.”

“How hard a thing is life to the lowly and yet how human and real is it? And all this life and love and strife and failure, - is it the twilight of nightfall or the flush of some faint-dawning day? The answer lies in each of us. For somewhere in your past ... somewhere some 100 years ago?there rose from the smoldering ashes of slavery?a proud and humble family who suffered and struggled with life. A family who found the strength to endure all the indignities of life in America, and that family had the hope for a taste of her bounties in the future.”

“The Nation has not yet found peace from its sins; the freedman has not yet found in freedom his promised land. Whatever of good may have come in these years of change, the shadow of a deep disappointment rests upon the Negro people,—a disappointment all the more bitter because the unattained ideal was unbounded save by the simple ignorance of a lowly people.”

People Years May Found Nations Sin Simple Land Ignorance Shadow Ideals Disappointment Bitter Promised Land Deep Disappointment

Book:The Souls of Black Folk: The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois

Source: The Souls of Black Folk: The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois

“Raphael painted, Luther preached, Corneille wrote, and Milton sang; and through it all, for four hundred years, the dark captives wound to the sea amid the bleaching bones of the dead: for four hundred years the sharks followed the scurrying ships; for four hundred years America was strewn with the living and dying millions of a transplanted race; for four hundred years Ethiopia stretched forth her hands unto God.”

Source: Black Folk Then and Now (The Oxford W.E.B. Du Bois): An Essay in the History and Sociology of the Negro Race