Martin Luther King, Jr.
Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.Collection: Love
One of the greatest casualties of the war in Vietnam is the Great Society... shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam.Collection: War
We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the postive affirmation of peace.Collection: War
Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.Collection: Freedom
Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.Collection: Freedom
We are not makers of history. We are made by history.Collection: History
At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.Collection: Love
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.Collection: Society
Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'Collection: Life
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.Collection: Money
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.Collection: Education
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.Collection: God
We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.Collection: Learning
Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.Collection: History
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.
Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
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.
I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.
A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.
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.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.
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.
Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.
Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.
A lie cannot live.
To other countries, I may go as a tourist, but to India, I come as a pilgrim.
A right delayed is a right denied.
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.
Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.
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.
An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.
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.
Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.
A riot is the language of the unheard.
The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility.
I want to be the white man's brother, not his brother-in-law.
Seeing is not always believing.
Means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.
Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.
When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.
The principle of self defense, even involving weapons and bloodshed, has never been condemned, even by Gandhi.
Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.
The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.
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.
Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.
On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' And Vanity comes along and asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But Conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?'