There is no royal flower strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it, for whatever success I have attained has been the result of much hard work and many sleepless nights.
Madam C. J. WalkerRead
This is the greatest country under the sun. But we must not let our love of country, our patriotic loyalty, cause us to abate one whit in our protest against wrong and injustice.
Interpretation
Patriotism should not prevent us from opposing wrongdoing and injustice in our country.
Madam C. J. Walker emphasizes the importance of being proud of one's country while also remaining vigilant and critical against its wrongdoings. She advocates that true love for one's nation involves a commitment to challenge and protest injustices rather than accepting them quietly due to a sense of loyalty.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about civil rights and the importance of advocating for justice.
There is no royal flower strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it, for whatever success I have attained has been the result of much hard work and many sleepless nights.
I am not satisfied in making money for myself. I endeavor to provide employment for hundreds of the women of my race.
I have made it possible for many colored women to abandon the washtub for a more pleasant and profitable occupation.
Don't think that because you have to go down in the wash-tub that you are any less a lady!
The girls and women of our race must not be afraid to take hold of business endeavor and, by patient industry, close economy, determined effort and close application to business, wring success out of a number of business opportunities that lie at their very doors.
As I bent over the washboard and looked at my arms buried in soapsuds, I said to myself, 'What are you going to do when you grow old and your back gets stiff?' This set me to thinking, but with all my thinking I couldn't see how a poor washerwoman was going to better my condition.
I saw the bombs, and, like a kid, I looked back at them. Instantly there was fire everywhere.
I am a woman who is a granddaughter of a lady who used to be beaten on the head by her husband, of a mother who went through hell because she was divorced and had to bring up these kids. And I can take 10 men out to lunch and pay the bill, and nobody even thinks twice about it. So don’t mess with me.
Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster.
What are fears but voices airy?_x000D_ _x000D_ Whispering harm where harm is not._x000D_ _x000D_ And deluding the unwary_x000D_ _x000D_ Till the fatal bolt is shot!
Sir, I am not a brave man...The truth is, I am an utter craven coward. I have never been within the sound of gunshot or in sight of battle in my whole life that I wasn't so scared that I had sweat in the palms of my hands.
The thought of only being a creature of the present and the past was troubling. I longed for a future too, with hope in it. The desire to be free, awakened my determination to act, to think, and to SPEAK.
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