284 Quotes by W. E. B. Du Bois

To stimulate wildly weak and untrained minds is to play with mighty fires.

The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.

The theory of democratic government is not that the will of the people is always right, but rather that normal human beings of average intelligence will, if given a chance, learn the right and best course by bitter experience.

It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.

There is but one coward on earth, and that is the coward that dare not know.

But what of black women?... I most sincerely doubt if any other race of women could have brought its fineness up through so devilish a fire.

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

A classic is a book that doesn't have to be written again.

Begin with art, because art tries to take us outside ourselves. It is a matter of trying to create an atmosphere and context so conversation can flow back and forth and we can be influenced by each other.