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“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.”

Source: Up from Slavery (1901), chapter II

Context Recalling how as a boy he envied white boys' opportunities, he argues that obstacles overcome, not rank attained, are the true measure of success.

Portrait of Booker T. Washington
Booker T. WashingtonUnited States · 1856–1915
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