Top 25 Mary McLeod Bethune Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Believe in yourself, learn, and never stop wanting to build a better world.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

Featured in: Impact Quotes, Lifelong Learning Quotes, Graduation Quotes, Vision Quotes, Teaching Quotes

2. “Faith is the first factor in a life devoted to service. Without it, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

Featured in: Sunday Morning Quotes, Make A Difference Quotes, Service Quotes, Motivational Quotes for Women, Peace Quotes

3. “Enter to learn; depart to serve.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

Featured in: Service Quotes, Encouraging Quotes for Students, Legacy Quotes, School Quotes, Teacher Appreciation Quotes

4. “Next to God we are indebted to women, first for life itself, and then for making it worth living.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

5. “We have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

6. “The progress of the world will call for the best that all of us have to give.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

7. “For I am my mother’s daughter, and...”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

8. “A woman is free if she lives by her own standards and creates her own destiny, if she prizes her individuality and puts no boundaries on her hopes for tomorrow.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

9. “I leave you love. I leave you hope. I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another. I leave you respect for the use of power. I leave you faith. I leave you racial dignity.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

10. “Forgiving is not about forgetting, it’s letting go of the hurt.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

11. “Education is the great American adventure, the world’s most colossal democratic experiment.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

12. “Studying goes deeper than mere reading. There are surface nuggets to be gathered but the best of the gold is underneath, and it takes time and labor to secure it.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

Featured in: Reading Quotes

13. “Without faith nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

14. “We live in a world which respects power above all things. Power, intelligently directed, can lead to more freedom. Unwisely directed, it can be a dreadful, destructive force.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

15. “World peace and brotherhood are based on a common understanding of the contributions and cultures of all races and creeds.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

16. “Cease to be a drudge, seek to be an artist.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

17. “If we have the courage and tenacity of our forebears, who stood firmly like a rock against the lash of slavery, we shall find a way to do for our day what they did for theirs.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

18. “For I am my mother’s daughter, and the drums of Africa still beat in my heart.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

19. “I never stop to plan. I take things step-by-step.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

20. “The true worth of a race must be measured by the character of its womanhood.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

21. “I do feel, in my dreamings and yearnings, so undiscovered by those who are able to help me.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

22. “Greatness is largely a social accident, and almost always socially supported.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

23. “To those of you with your years of service still ahead, the challenge is yours. Stop doubting yourselves. Have the courage to make up your minds and hold your decisions. Refuse to be BOUGHT for a nickel, or a million dollars, or a job!”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

24. “There is a place in God’s sun for the youth “farthest down” who has the vision, the determination, and the courage to reach it.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

25. “Knowledge is the prime need of the hour.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

26. “I have had more than half a century of such happiness. A great deal of worry and sorrow, too, but never a worry or a sorrow that was not offset by a purple iris, a lark, a bluebird, or a dewy morning glory.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

27. “Whatever the white man has done, we have done, and often better.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

28. “I thought, maybe the difference between white folks and colored is just this matter of reading and writing. I made up my mind I would know my letters.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

Featured in: Reading Quotes

29. “From the first, I made my learning, what little it was, useful every way I could.”

— Mary McLeod Bethune

Featured in: Firsts Quotes