W. E. B. Du Bois Quotes
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was an American sociologist, philosopher, historian, and civil rights leader. The first African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard, he produced pioneering empirical studies of Black life in the United States and articulated, in The Souls of Black Folk, the experience of double consciousness that would shape Black thought and Black studies for a century. The quotes below are attributed to W. E. B. Du Bois, organized by topic.
W. E. B. Du Bois on Freedom
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Attributed to W. E. B. Du Bois:
“The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.”
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Attributed to W. E. B. Du Bois:
“There is in this world no such force as the force of a man determined to rise.”
W. E. B. Du Bois on Knowledge
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Attributed to W. E. B. Du Bois:
“Education must not simply teach work; it must teach life.”
W. E. B. Du Bois on Mind
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Attributed to W. E. B. Du Bois:
“It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others.”
W. E. B. Du Bois on Politics
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Attributed to W. E. B. Du Bois:
“The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.”
W. E. B. Du Bois on Time
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Attributed to W. E. B. Du Bois:
“Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season.”