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| Stolen King /// © Kadir Nelson /// Courtesy of Art of Color |
one ever feels his twoness-an American, a Negro;
two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings;
two warring ideals in one dark body,
whose dogged strength alone keeps it
from being torn asunder.~W. E. B. Du Bois (http://www.duboislc.org/html/DuBoisBio.html)
W.E.B Dubois was arguably one of the greatest intellects of the twentieth century. His deeply penetrating socio-cultural critiques which affected social and political movements worldwide, are still illuminating and indispensable. Below is just a small sample of this man's rare genius.
On Individuality
“The main thing is the YOU beneath the clothes and skin--the ability to do, the will to conquer, the determination to understand and know this great, wonderful, curious world.”
“The main thing is the YOU beneath the clothes and skin--the ability to do, the will to conquer, the determination to understand and know this great, wonderful, curious world.”
Du Bois On Du Bois
“I am one who tells the truth and exposes evil and seeks with Beauty for Beauty to set the world right.”
On Civilization
“...In the civilized world each serves all, and all serve each, and the binding force is faith and skill, and the skill is bounded only by human possibility and genius, and the faith is faithful even to the untrue.”
“...In the civilized world each serves all, and all serve each, and the binding force is faith and skill, and the skill is bounded only by human possibility and genius, and the faith is faithful even to the untrue.”
On Art and Beauty
“Art is not simply works of art; it is the spirit that knows Beauty, that has music in its soul and the color of sunsets in its headkerchiefs; that can dance on a flaming world and make the world dance, too...”
“Art is not simply works of art; it is the spirit that knows Beauty, that has music in its soul and the color of sunsets in its headkerchiefs; that can dance on a flaming world and make the world dance, too...”
On Human Nature
“Human nature is not simple and any classification that roughly divides men into good and bad, superior and inferior, slave and free, is and must be ludicrously untrue and universally dangerous as a permanent exhaustive classification.”
On Time
"Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the seed time, now are the hours of work, and tomorrow comes the harvest and the playtime."
On Determination
There is in this world no such force as the force of a person determined to rise. The human soul cannot be permanently chained.
On Tragedy
"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? Nay, but that men know so little of men."
Click here for his e-books: http://www.thalasson.com/gtn/gtnletD.htm#letD
