Kelly Miller

“It is not the province of prejudice to be rational.”

“It is idle to expect a people to rise higher than the ideals of its leaders.”

“Racial self-respect is the saving salt of character.”

“The radical and the conservative are equally essential to the sanity of the state.”

“Let the Negro race be judged by its best, and not by its worst.”

“To be ashamed of one's race is to be ashamed of one's self.”

“The solution of the race problem will not be found in the triumph of either race, but in the co-operation of both.”

“The progress of the world is a zigzag movement.”

“We must not be ashamed of our color. A man who is ashamed of his skin is a coward.”

“The argument of the higher education of the Negro is not for the purpose of creating a class of scholars, but to train leaders.”

“The Negro is here to stay, and the white man might as well make up his mind to treat him as a man and a citizen.”

“Exaggerated self-importance is the all-too-common foible of the over-educated.”

“The Negro must be taught to respect himself.”

“Civilization is the art of self-restraint.”

“The Negro's salvation must be worked out by himself.”

“The Negro wants everything that the white man has, and he wants it on the same terms.”

“The world is not going to be saved by the great men, but by the little men who do their duty.”

“The function of the university is not to teach that which is useful, but to teach that which is true.”