Madam C. J. Walker Quotes

“America doesn't respect anything but money. What our people need is a few millionaires.”

“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.”

“Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.”

“Don’t think that because you have to go down in the wash-tub that you are any less a lady!”

“Everybody told me I was making a mistake by going into this business, but I know how to grow hair as well as I know how to grow cotton.”

“Girls and women of our race must not be afraid to take hold of business endeavour 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 doors.”

“God answered my prayer, for one night I had a dream, and in that dream a big black man appeared to me and told me what to mix up for my hair.

Some of the remedy was grown in Africa, but I sent for it, mixed it, put it on my scalp, and in a few weeks my hair was coming in faster than it had ever fallen out.

I tried it on my friends; it helped them. I made up my mind I would begin to sell it.”

“Hair is power. You can’t imagine what it is like to lose it.”

“Having a good article for the market is one thing, putting it properly before the public is another.”

“I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there I was promoted to the washtub. From there I was promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations.”

“I am not ashamed of my past. I am not ashamed of my humble beginning.”

“I am not merely satisfied in making money for myself, for I am endeavoring to provide employment for hundreds of women of my race.

I want to say to every N*gro woman present, don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them!”

“I endeavour to provide employment to hundreds of women of my race.”

“I feel that I am in a business that is a credit to the womanhood of our race.”

“I got my start by giving myself a start.”

“I had little or no opportunity when I started out in life.”

“I had to go down and dignify this work, so much so that many of the best women of our race are now engaged in this line of business, and many of them are now in my employ.”

“I had to make my own living and my own opportunity. But I made it! Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.”

“I have always held myself out as a hair culturist. I grow hair.”

“I have built my own factory on my own ground, 38 by 208 feet. I employ in that factory seven people, including a bookkeeper, a stenographer, a cook and a housegirl.”

“I have made it possible for many colored women to abandon the wash-tub for more pleasant and profitable occupation.”

“I love to use a part of what I make to help others.”

“I want others to look at us and see that we care not just about ourselves but about others.”

“I want the great masses of my people to take a greater pride in their personal appearance and to give their hair proper attention.”

“I want to live to help my race.”

“I want you to understand that your first duty is to humanity. I want others to look at us and see that we care not just about ourselves but about others.”

“If I have accomplished anything in life it is because I have been willing to work hard.”

“In a dream, a big black man appeared to me and told me what to mix up for my hair. I made up my mind I would begin to sell it.”

“It's pretty hard for the Lord to guide you if you haven't made up your mind which way to go.”

“Keep in mind that you have something that the person standing before you really needs, imagine yourself a missionary and convert him.”