Joseph R. Gay

“ The soul must grow; it must develop, and for this it must have a wide space. Do not bind the growth with a too compelling hand. Let cooperation, not coercion, be the stimulus between you.
The whole world is yours and your child’s, dear mother, therefore do not cramp his mental or spiritual gymnastics. There are a thousand outlets, a hundred thousand modes of expression. Find your child’s height and depth; sound him, measure his capacity for learning, pleasure, pain, work, and let him grow in beauty, wisdom and peace ever unfolding into the Infinite. ”

“ The power that impels him is dynamic. It grows out of an inertia charged with the vibration of living eternal forces—a training that fits him to propel himself into chaos and evolve order and profit—out of an education that shows him how—out of a system that changes to suit altered conditions—out of the same mighty impulses that have fashioned the conquerors of armies, or nations, leaders of men, the world’s financiers, the masters of commerce, the uplifters, governors and kings of men. ”

“ If they do nothing else, they are demonstrating that Colored Americans can do the same things, fill the same positions as the other races, and that they possess an equally balanced intelligence, and have the same brain power as others. They never spend their time quarreling with fate, but overcome fate, and manufacture opportunity and ride upon destiny as upon a fiery steed, curbing it with the whip and the lash of education and intelligence, mingled with energy and persistent determination. ”

“ Viewing the teacher, the doctor, the lawyer, and the clergyman from the common standpoint, there is no money in the professions.
Here is where the trouble lies. To be a teacher, a doctor, a lawyer, or a clergyman for the sake of what can be made out of either, is to insult the noblest professions in the world. They are what have kept the world together since the beginning, and we should take our hats off to them out of respect. ”

“ It is easy to learn, in fact one thing brings another. Like some food we eat—one mouthful makes us hungry for another. Our modern system is so linked and connected together, that every thing that may or can be learned is a link in the great entire chain. You begin pulling at the educational chain and find that you can not stop. You feel impelled to keep on taking up link after link, until before you are aware of it, you have mastered some definite branch of learning through the force of education. ”

“ If the first American admiral who forced western civilization upon them through trade and commerce could see them now at the bargain counter of opportunities, he would be amazed.
Their arts and sciences are marvels of beauty; their home life when they are not fighting is amid a bower of roses, and they can imitate anything as to mechanical workmanship from a toy dog to a complicated man-of-war. They make everything the civilized men make, and sell them for a pittance. They know what they want and they get it or declare war. ”

“ To a man who never lifts his eyes to the gleaming stars, or raises them beyond the brittle straws that clog his feet? To the man who dares, life is a tumult of happiness, of radiant love, of a joyous household, a fortress of friends. His hair turns gray, his limbs grow weak, and his eyes are dim, but around his bedside hover the deeds he has done, his nostrils snuff in the incense of his successes, and he dies content that he will still live in the posterity that he has dared raise up to follow in his footsteps. ”

“ By owning land you become a landlord, and you gain that opportunity by thrift and economy.
Land is the soundest investment in the world, and it has always been one of the great objects and hopes of the people of the earth to own a small slice of its surface.
If you own land, you acquire a sense of responsibility to the community where it is located. You are invested with a dignity which you can not obtain in any other way. You possess a sense of security and independence that nothing else will give you. ”

“ Waste no Time Dreaming of the Past You are living in the present preparing for the future. The past is dead and you should let the past bury the past.
The man who dreams of the past and forgets his future, is like a man who rises in the morning not of today but of yesterday. He is going backward when his face is put in front pointing always forward. ”

“ Our children must be so reared as to develop into good sons and daughters and good citizens as well. The keynote of all progress and advancement in the good of the world is centered here. Each generation should excel the one preceding it, and can be made to do so if the parents of today and the communities of today are not neglectful. Always today must be determined the nature of tomorrow. Parents and governments have a glorious responsibility bestowed upon them. They determine what all coming history shall be, what shall be the future of any nation and the degree of the world’s happiness. ”

“ Compensations are in the train of the man who dares. Compensation is a higher, nobler word than wealth, riches, money, or jewels. Money is a good thing to possess, and wealth is not to be despised, but the love of money is the root of all evil. Have you never noticed that the harder a man strives to get money the farther he gets away from it? ”

“ His opportunity has blossomed out of conditions unparalleled in the history of nations.
Too many have been plodding along in a furrow afraid to come out of the rut. They have lived, it is true, but they have not touched success. All animals live, but man has higher motives than mere existence.
Enterprise, business, commerce, capital, government demand a man who dares. Many leaders have fallen beneath the spell of malignant influence, and have dragged down into the pit with them, respect, honor, confidence, and honesty. ”

“ If she had only realized that the quality she was stamping out was a radiant, winged, rare, inspired and inspiring touch of nature springing out of a fullness of life, a superabundance of health, she might have made her child a queen among women, a leader, a creature admired and adored. ”

“ The ability of the Negro to become educated according to the highest standards of the times is one of the great marvels of the last half century. Never in the history of the world has any people met with such overwhelming opposition against acquiring such training as will fit them for the full duties of citizen, as have the Freedmen in the United States; never before has a people struggled as nobly and succeeded so well in mastering every branch of learning, as this people, practically all of whom were illiterate at the close of the Civil War ”

“ You will be of more value tomorrow than you are today because you have advanced by experience—you have learned something, and so you will learn something every day and every tomorrow will find an improvement in you. Your time will be of more value, and your services command a higher price. You must work things around so that this will happen to you.
To every young man the future holds everything dear to him, his hopes are all centered on the future. In it he sees a home, a family, honor, fame perhaps, wealth possibly, comforts and a peaceful old age. ”

“ FUTURE LEADERS NOW UNKNOWN YOUTH Even now in some humble home, there is a youth, a mere child with possibilities unknown to him or to you, who may develop into a leader. Many great men have sprung from such sources, and made the world ring with their exploits. What has been done can be and will be done again. It is not fate, nor is it perhaps destiny as some may think, it is opportunity. ”