Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

The saying urges deliberate choice of companions, arguing that character and habits are shaped by one’s social environment. “People of good quality” implies not status but integrity, self-discipline, and constructive aims; “bad company” suggests influences that corrode judgment, ambition, or moral standards. The second clause—preferring solitude to harmful association—frames loneliness as a lesser cost than being pulled into destructive norms. Attributed to Booker T. Washington, the sentiment aligns broadly with his emphasis on self-improvement and moral uplift, though the wording also resembles older proverbial advice, which may explain its wide circulation in quotation collections.