Martin Luther King, Jr.
Agape is something of the understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill for all men. It is a love that seeks nothing in return. It is an overflowing love; it's what theologians would call the love of God working in the lives of men. And when you rise to love on this level, you begin to love men, not because they are likeable, but because God loves them.Collection: Life
The major problem of life is learning how to handle the costly interruptions.Collection: Problem
As long as the mind is enslaved, the body can never be free. Psychological freedom, a firm sense of self-esteem, is the most powerful weapon against the long night of physical slavery.Collection: Powerful
At times, life is hard, as hard as crucible steel. It has its bleak and painful moments. Like the ever flowing water of a river, life has its moments of drought and its moments of flood. Like the ever-changin cycle of the seasons, life has the soothing warmth of the summers and the piercing chill of its winters. But through it all, God walks with us. Never forget that God is able to lift you from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope, and transform dark and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of inner peace.Collection: Summer
It is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard.Collection: Alternatives
... the right to defend one's home and one's person when attacked has been guaranteed through the ages by common law.Collection: Home
In any civilized society, it is every citizen's responsibility to obey just laws. But at the same time, it is every citizen's responsibility to disobey unjust laws.Collection: War
I choose to give my life for those who have been left out of the sunlight of opportunityCollection: Opportunity
The greatest purveyor of violence in the world : My own Government, I can not be Silent.Collection: Inspirational
I was much more afraid in Montgomery when I had a gun in my house. When I decided that I couldn’t keep a gun, I came face-to-face with the question of death and I dealt with it. From that point on, I no longer needed a gun nor have I been afraid. Had we become distracted by the question of my safety we would have lost the moral offensive and sunk to the level of our oppressors.Collection: Gun
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracyCollection: Real
Truth is not to be found either in traditional capitalism or in Marxism. Each represents a partial truth. Historically, capitalism failed to discern the truth in collective enterprise and Marxism failed to see the truth in individual enterprise.Collection: Political
If you've got nothing worth dying for, you've got nothing worth living for.Collection: Dying
Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with an its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.Collection: Covered Up
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.Collection: Integrity
[E]very human life is a reflection of divinity, and... every act of injustice mars and defaces the image of God in man.Collection: Reflection
If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.Collection: Perseverance
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.Collection: Love
The time is always right to do the right thing.Collection: Inspiring
Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’Collection: About Life
Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.Collection: Forgiveness
That old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.Collection: Time
My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.Collection: Country
The words ‘I will forgive you, but I’ll never forget what you’ve done’ never explain the real nature of forgiveness.Collection: Real
My mommy always said there were no monsters – no real ones – but there are.Collection: Real