Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.

No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.

No man, who continues to add something to the material, intellectual and moral well-being of the place in which he lives, is left long without proper reward.

At the bottom of education, at the bottom of politics, even at the bottom of religion, there must be for our race economic independence.

I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.

Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him.

We must reinforce argument with results.

Success in life is founded upon attention to the small things rather than to the large things; to the every day things nearest to us rather than to the things that are remote and uncommon.

No greater injury can be done to any youth than to let him feel that because he belongs to this or that race he will be advanced in life regardless of his own merits or efforts.

Dignify and glorify common labor. It is at the bottom of life that we must begin, not at the top.

I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.

Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.

There is no power on earth that can neutralize the influence of a high, simple and useful life.

We do not want the men of another color for our brothers-in-law, but we do want them for our brothers.

The individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in the end, make his way regardless of his race.

There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.

Character is power.

To hold a man down, you have to stay down with him.

We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him.

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.

If you can't read, it's going to be hard to realize dreams.

You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.

You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you have to overcome to reach your goals.

There are two ways of exerting one’s strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.

If you want to lift yourself up lift up someone else.

You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you had to overcome to reach your goals.

Nothing ever comes to one that is worth having except as a result of hard work.

Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.

If you want to lift yourself up, lift someone else up.

Living is the art of loving. Loving is the art of caring. Caring is the art of sharing. Sharing is the art of living. If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.

In this watering-place I acted an heroic character, badly studied; and being a novice on such a stage, I forgot my part before a pair of lovely blue eyes.

I do like to embed a fictional character firmly in an occupation.

But even with a character like Cary who is relatively outlandish, at the end of the movie he's in a place where I wouldn't have expected him to be - taking on the responsibility of a woman who is pregnant and who used to be his best friend's wife.

Always, your work is the same: You have to tell a story, you have to make a character. It doesn't matter if there are thousands of dollars, millions behind it, or if there is nothing.

Each of us is meant to have a character all our own, to be what no other can exactly be, and do what no other can exactly do.

I liked Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, and that is the kind of character that I would like to have played. That would have been more in tune with who I really was.

It's the difficulty we had with Mr. Bean, actually, when it went from TV to film. You certainly discover that you need to explain more about a character.

In a lot of ways, the make-up was the character.

The more we study the Indian's character the more we appreciate the marked distinction between the civilized being and the real savage.

So many people have said that to me, that what they really like about Alex is what she brings out in Marissa, and what this situation brings out in her, a hint of happiness and another side to her character.

I've been on the show for six years and I don't even know what her history is. I sort of make things up in my mind, but I think it's hard for an audience to follow and invest in a character when they don't have the details.

It is not true that drink changes a man's character. It may reveal it more clearly.

Because I killed a guy in real life, and because my character kills a guy onstage, they said I could never do anything this great again. I resented that.