# Quote — W.E.B. Dubois, The Souls of Black Folk

> It is, then, the strife of all honorable men and women of the twentieth century to see that in the future competition of the races the survival of the fittest shall mean the triumph of the good, the beautiful, and the true; that we may be able to preserve for future civilization all that is really fine and noble and strong, and not continue to put a premium on greed and imprudence and cruelty.

- Author: [W.E.B. Dubois](https://www.leafyquotes.com/web-dubois.md)
- Book: [The Souls of Black Folk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/web-dubois/the-souls-of-black-folk.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/W._E._B._Du_Bois#The_Souls_of_Black_Folk_(1903)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/web-dubois/the-souls-of-black-folk/it-is-then

## More from this book

> 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.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/web-dubois/the-souls-of-black-folk/herein-lies-the.md)

> The function of the university is not simply to teach bread-winning, or to furnish teachers for the public schools or to be a centre of polite society; it is, above all, to be the organ of that fine adjustment between real life and the growing knowledge of life, an adjustment which forms the secret of civilization.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/web-dubois/the-souls-of-black-folk/the-function-of-the.md)

> Within the Veil was he born, said I; and there within shall he live, — a Negro and a Negro's son. Holding in that little head — ah, bitterly! — the unbowed pride of a hunted race, clinging with that tiny dimpled hand — ah, wearily! — to a hope not hopeless but unhopeful, and seeing with those bright wondering eyes that peer into my soul a land whose freedom is to us a mockery and whose liberty is a lie.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/web-dubois/the-souls-of-black-folk/within-the-veil.md)