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Quotes by Martin Luther King, Jr.


Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
A lie cannot live.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
A right delayed is a right denied.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched across the pages of history the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence, we were here. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
From the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire, let freedom ring. From the mighty mountains of New York, let freedom ring. From the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania, let freedom ring. But not only that: Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
I am not interested in power for power's sake, but I'm interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
I want to be the white man's brother, not his brother-in-law.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values - that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolute night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
If you will protest courageously, and yet with dignity and Christian love, when the history books are written in future generations, the historians will have to pause and say, There lived a great people - a black people - who injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
It is incontestable and deplorable that Negroes have committed crimes; but they are derivative crimes. They are born of the greater crimes of the white society.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Put yourself in a state of mind where you say to yourself, Here is an opportunity for me to celebrate like never before, my own power, my own ability to get myself to do whatever is necessary.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Science investigates religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power religion gives man wisdom which is control.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Seeing is not always believing.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me? But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Negro's great stumbling block in the drive toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be... The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
The sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
The time is always right to do what is right.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
We are not makers of history. We are made by history.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the postive affirmation of peace.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
We must use time creatively.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
I have a dream that one day…the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and consciencious stupidity.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
My personal trails have also taught me the value of unmerited suffering. As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways that I could respond to my situation: either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course. Recognizing the necessity for suffering I have tried to make of it virtue. If only to save myself from bitterness, I have attempted to see my personal ordeals as an opportunity to transform myself and heal the people involved in the tragic situation, which now obtains. I have lived these last few years with the conviction that unearned suffering is redemptive.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
One of the greatest casualties of the war in Vietnam is the Great Society ... shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Segregation is the adultery of an illicit intercourse between injustice and immorality.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ten thousand fools proclaim themselves into obscurity, while one wise man forgets himself into immortality.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human and, therefore, brothers.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
The church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Now, I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: - 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Whatever your life's work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
War is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Property is intended to serve life, and no matter how much we surround it with rights and respect, it has no personal being. It is part of the earth man walks on. It is not man.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Pity may represent little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, but true sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one's soul.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.