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“Opportunity is important but exertion is indispensable.”
Douglass grants the importance of opportunity while insisting that sustained exertion remains necessary for achievement, refusing to let either circumstance or effort erase the importance of the other.
Source note: Self-Made Men lecture, commonly dated to 1872 in edited versions. Library of Congress preserves undated manuscript, typescript and printed-copy materials, including a later Carlisle version; Douglass delivered and revised the lecture across his speaking career. The lecture also stresses social interdependence, so this line should not be reduced to a simplistic bootstrap claim.
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“No matter what the thing is, put your conscience into it; do your best.”
Work gains moral weight when effort and conscience remain present even in tasks that seem small, routine, or unlikely to attract praise.
Source note: Character Building, “What Is To Be Our Future?”, Project Gutenberg #60484. Washington asks whether Tuskegee will remain worthy of public confidence and answers by requiring each student and worker to put conscience and full effort into every kind of work.
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“An efficient and valuable man does what he can, whether the community pay him for it or not.”
Thoreau defines useful activity independently of external payment, arguing that a person committed to meaningful work continues to exercise ability even when the community does not reward it.
Source note: Life Without Principle, The Atlantic Monthly, 1863; represented Wikisource text. The line follows Thoreau’s claim that a community cannot buy a wise person away from work that genuinely occupies him.
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“Little strokes fell great oaks.”
Small repeated efforts can accomplish work that seems too large for a single burst of effort, making consistency itself a practical form of strength.
Source note: Poor Richard’s Almanack; a compact maxim about cumulative effort.
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“Diligence is the mother of good luck.”
Persistent effort improves the odds of useful results because steady work creates more opportunities for progress than waiting for favorable circumstances.
Source note: Poor Richard’s Almanack; the maxim appears in Franklin’s collected Poor Richard material.
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“The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.”
Accumulating wealth without using it responsibly is presented as a moral failure, shifting attention from possession to stewardship and public benefit.
Source note: The Gospel of Wealth; Carnegie argues that surplus wealth carries social responsibilities during the owner’s lifetime.