Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes

No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they'd die for.

I suggested then that the prize was not given merely as recognition of past achievement, but also as...

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our p...

I am convinced that love is the most durable power in the world. It is not an expression of impracti...

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And s...

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why...

Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely e...

I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed, without having first spoke...

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence...

The major problem of life is learning how to handle the costly interruptions. The door that slams sh...

Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires...

I said to my children, 'I'm going to work and do everything that I can do to see that you get a good...

Through violence you may murder the hater, but you cannot murder hate.

But today our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain ...

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of d...

When religion becomes so involved in a future good "over yonder" that it forgets the present evils o...

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Only a "dry as dust" religion prompts a minister to extol the glories of Heaven while ignoring the s...

Time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel ...

We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever ...

The words 'bad timing' came to be ghosts haunting our every move in Birmingham. Yet people who used ...

We did not hesitate to call our movement an army. But it was a special army, with no supplies but it...

Three hundred years of humiliation, abuse and deprivation cannot be expected to find voice in a whis...

This Revolution is genuine because it was born from the same womb that always gives birth to massive...

Find a voice in a whisper.

Like anybody, I would like to have a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about...

All this is simply to say that all life is interrelated. We are caught in an inescapable network of ...

If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way

We are going to win our freedom because both the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will ...

Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes b...

May I say just a word to those of you who are struggling against this evil. Always be sure that you ...

I'm concerned about a better world. I'm concerned about justice; I'm concerned about brotherhood; I'...

We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the su...

Communism forgets that life is individual. Capitalism forgets that life is social, and the kingdom o...

There can be no deep disappointment where there in not deep love.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of m...

It is cheerful to God when you rejoice or laugh from the bottom of your heart.

In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, such as...

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be jud...

Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?

But it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irres...

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it see...

On some positions, cowardice asks the question, is it expedient? And then expedience comes along and...

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.

My call to the ministry was not a miraculous or supernatural something. On the contrary it was an in...

Only in the darkness can you see the stars.

The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. ...

It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable net...

An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the pe...

Violence is not only impractical but immoral.

Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

Our only hope lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go into a sometimes host...

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I t...

Even if they try to kill you, you develop the inner conviction that thereare some things so precious...

One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.

Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice.

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoi...

The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the co...

One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through gre...

If a man hasn’t found something he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.

we shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet ...

Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war.

If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever yo...

God is able to give you the power to endure that which cannot be changed... Why be anxious? Come wha...

The question is not if we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. The nation and...

Only God is able. It is faith in Him that we must rediscover. With this faith we can transform bleak...

At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love

Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.

There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.

A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right.

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualis...

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.

If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps moving, you lose that courage to be, that...

And when you discover what you will be in your life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you ...

Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.

The non-violent resistor not only avoids external, physical violence, but he avoids internal violenc...

No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be u...

Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian...

We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.

What I'm saying to you this morning is that Communism forgets that life is individual. Capitalism fo...

There comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression.

Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are search...

And one day we must ask the question, "Why are there forty million poor people in America?" And when...

...The straitjackets of race prejudice and discrimination do not wear only southern labels. The subt...

The amazing aftermath of Birmingham, the sweeping Negro Revolution, revealed to people all over the ...

Even today there still exists in the South--and in certain areas of the North--the license that our ...

Quietly endure, silently suffer and patiently wait.

We were all involved in the death of John Kennedy. We tolerated hate; we tolerated the sick stimulat...

A social movement that only moves people is merely a revolt. A movement that changes both people and...

No one can pretend that because a people may be oppressed, every individual member is virtuous and w...

Let us be dissatisfied until America will no longer have high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia...

I always contended that we as a race must not seek to rise from a position of disadvantage to one of...

As a young man with most of my life ahead of me, I decided early to give my life to something eterna...

One of these days I'm going to put my body where my mind is.

In some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great...

Nothing worthwhile is gained without sacrifice.

We can all get more together than we can apart. And this is the way we gain power. Power is the abil...

On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, “Is it safe?” Expediency asks the question, “Is it p...