Top 75 Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes

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

Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.

Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.

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?’

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.

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.

Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. I am not unmindful of the fact that violence often brings about momentary results. Nations have frequently won their independence in battle. But in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace.

We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.

A riot is the language of the unheard.

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.

That old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.

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.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

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

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

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.

We must use time creatively.

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.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

The time is always right to do what is right.

One of the greatest casualties of the war in Vietnam is the Great Society… shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.

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

All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.

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

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.

The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important.

Means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.

The principle of self defense, even involving weapons and bloodshed, has never been condemned, even by Gandhi.

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.

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.

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.

If I wish to compose or write or pray or preach well, I must be angry. Then all the blood in my veins is stirred, and my understanding is sharpened.

The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.

Seeing is not always believing.

To other countries, I may go as a tourist, but to India, I come as a pilgrim.

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.

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.

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.

The sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.

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.

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.

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.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

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.

Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control.

Don’t let anybody make you think God chose America as His divine messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

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.

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

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

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.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.