Madam C.J. Walker

I had to make my own living and my own opportunity. But I made it!

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.

Nothing comes to a sleeper but a dream.

Turn every closed door into your workshop.

Stand tall in rooms that once excluded you.

Your voice deserves business and respect.

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 got my start by giving myself a start.

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

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.

IT'S PRETTY HARD for the Lord TO GUIDE YOU IF YOU HAVEN'T MADE UP YOUR MIND WHICH WAY TO GO.

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

There would be no hair growing business today had I not started it.

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. I made up my mind I would begin to sell it.

You might say that I was the first and caused others to awaken to the sense of their duty in helping deserving causes for the benefit of the race.

My object in life is not simply to make money for myself or to spend it on myself in dressing or running around in an automobile, but I love to use a part of what I make in trying to help others.

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.

Challenges are unpaid teachers.

Struggle can be strategic training.

Barriers reveal new routes.