Verified Quotes
Every quote on this page is verified against the named source work.
W.E.B. Du Bois, Sociologist, historian, and the first Black American to earn a Harvard doctorate, he named double, gets quoted everywhere and sourced almost nowhere. The 6 quotes below are different: each one is checked word for word against the cited work, starting with The Souls of Black Folk, not copied from aggregator sites that pass misattributions along. The source is named under every line, so you can trace each quote back to the page it came from.
Read W.E.B. Du Bois's full profile and how they reason →3 verified quotes
On naming the real issue instead of the polite one:
The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk
On holding two identities that will not merge easily:
One ever feels his twoness, an American, a Negro, two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings, two warring ideals in one dark body.W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk
On choosing a degree for meaning instead of just a paycheck:
Education must not simply teach work, it must teach Life.W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk
1 verified quote
On delaying a decision until the timing feels perfect:
Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season.W.E.B. Du Bois, Address to the Country
1 verified quote
On fighting for the right to keep studying against the odds:
Of all the civil rights for which the world has struggled and fought for five thousand years, the right to learn is undoubtedly the most fundamental.W.E.B. Du Bois, The Freedom to Learn
1 verified quote
On why a conflict keeps repeating despite good intentions on both sides:
Herein lies the tragedy of the age: not that men are poor, all men know something of poverty. Not that men are wicked, who is good? Not that men are ignorant, what is Truth? but that men know so little of men.W.E.B. Du Bois, Darkwater