Coretta Scott King
Non-violence is a permanent attitude we bring to the breakfast table and bring to bed at night.Collection: Attitude
Mama and Daddy King represent the best in manhood and womanhood, the best in a marriage, the kind of people we are trying to become.Collection: Marriage
The woman power of this nation can be the power which makes us whole and heals the rotten community, now so shattered by war and poverty and racism. I have great faith in the power of women who will dedicate themselves whole-heartedly to the task of remaking our society.Collection: Society
Thank God we have the example of Martin Luther King, Jr. People need role models. They need to see examples of people in peoples' lives, and that's why it's so important not just to commemorate his life, but to study and try to live by the principles of that life.Collection: God
Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union.Collection: Marriage
I believe all Americans who believe in freedom, tolerance and human rights have a responsibility to oppose bigotry and prejudice based on sexual orientation.Collection: Freedom
My story is a freedom song from within my soul. It is a guide to discovery, a vision of how even the worst pain and heartaches can be channeled into human monuments, impenetrable and everlasting.Collection: Freedom
Women, if the soul of the nation is to be saved, I believe that you must become its soul.Collection: Women
If you use weapons of war to bring about peace, you're going to have more war and destruction.Collection: War
On Thanksgiving Night, 1942, when I was fifteen years old, white racists burned our house to the ground.Collection: Thanksgiving
I'm fulfilled in what I do. I never thought that a lot of money or fine clothes - the finer things of life - would make you happy. My concept of happiness is to be filled in a spiritual sense.Collection: Money
When fear rushed in, I learned how to hear my heart racing but refused to allow my feelings to sway me. That resilience came from my family. It flowed through our bloodline.Collection: Fear
Revenge and retaliation always perpetuate the cycle of anger, fear and violence.Collection: Anger
My story is a freedom song of struggle. It is about finding one's purpose, how to overcome fear and to stand up for causes bigger than one's self.Collection: Freedom
Wherever there was injustice, war, discrimination against women, gays and the disadvantaged, I did my best to show up and exert moral persuasion.Collection: War
As one whose husband and mother-in-law have died the victims of murder and assassination, I stand firmly and unequivocally opposed to the death penalty for those convicted of capital offenses... An evil deed is not redeemed by an evil deed of retaliation.Collection: Death
Our Congress passes laws which subsidize corporation farms, oil companies, airlines, and houses for suburbia. But when they turn their attention to the poor, they suddenly become concerned about balancing the budget and cut back on the funds for Head Start, Medicare, and mental health appropriations.Collection: Health
I can't help but believe that at some time in the not-too-distant future, there is going to be another movement to change these systemic conditions of poverty, injustice, and violence in people's lives. That is where we've got to go, and it is going to be a struggle.Collection: Future
Before I was married to Martin and became a King, I was a proud Scott, shaped by my mother's discernment and my father's strength.Collection: Strength
The failure to invest in youth reflects a lack of compassion and a colossal failure of common sense.Collection: Failure
Just be what you are. And I try to be my best self and be what I am and knowing what I am and be satisfied with that. And if people don't know it, maybe they'll eventually know it.Collection: Best
Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.Collection: Freedom
Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.Collection: Great
Nelson Mandela sat in a South African prison for 27 years. He was nonviolent. He negotiated his way out of jail. His honor and suffering of 27 years in a South African prison is really ultimately what brought about the freedom of South Africa. That is nonviolence.Collection: Freedom
Something is wrong that we have to feed so many. Why should there be poverty with all of our science and technology? There is no deficit in human resources - it is a deficit in human will.Collection: Technology
Freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political convenience. I don't believe you can stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it to others.Collection: Freedom
The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.
To abandon affirmative action is to say there is nothing more to be done about discrimination.
Nonviolence is the only credible response to the violence we're seeing around the world.
Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood.
Justice is never advanced in the taking of a human life.
Segregation was wrong when it was forced by white people, and I believe it is still wrong when it is requested by black people.
Marrying Martin and the movement perfected my journey of discovery, soothed my yearning to pour out the values and vision within my soul.
Sometimes, I am also identified as a civil rights leader or a human rights activist. I would also like to be thought of as a complex, three-dimensional, flesh-and-blood human being with a rich storehouse of experiences, much like everyone else, yet unique in my own way, much like everyone else.
I believe that women know if their husbands are unfaithful. They feel it.
During the bus boycott, I was tested by fire, and I came to understand that I was not a breakable crystal figurine.
If American women would increase their voting turnout by ten percent, I think we would see an end to all of the budget cuts in programs benefiting women and children.
The Voting Rights Act was, and still is, vitally important to the future of democracy in the United States.
A vote for George Wallace is a vote for the past and oppression.
I suppose I experienced the personal dilemma that baffles every working woman. What happens when you are expected to be Superwoman, to perform a dozen conflicting tasks at the same time?
What most did not understand then was that I was not only married to the man I loved, but I was also married to the movement that I loved.
Scandal sells books; fidelity does not.
Civil rights leaders, including my husband and Albert Turner, have fought long and hard to achieve free and unfettered access to the ballot box. Mr. Sessions has used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens in the district he now seeks to serve as a federal judge.
Knowing what I know now, if I could have chosen parents, I would have chosen exactly the ones God selected for me.
Martin Luther King, Jr. tried to live his life serving others.
You cannot have peaceful means - peaceful means will have to be used to bring about peaceful ends. If you use destructive means, you're going to bring about destructive ends.
You have to have people who prick the consciences of the nation.
My professional and personal roots in Alabama are deep and lasting.
There is no reason why a nation as rich as ours should be blighted by poverty, disease, and illiteracy.
While not a panacea for the nation's illegal immigration problems, employer sanctions are one necessary means of stopping the exploitation of vulnerable workers and the undercutting of American jobs and living standards.