Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.

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

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.

Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.

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

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.

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

Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.

Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.

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

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

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

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

Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.

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

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?'

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.

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

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.

Never, never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.

Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service.

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

A lie cannot live.

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

True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.

The richer we have become materially, the poorer we become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly in the air like birds and swim in the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.

I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.

If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.

Use me, God. Show me how to take who I am, who I want to be, and what I can do, and use it for a purpose greater than myself.

Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless.

The greatest purveyor of violence in the world : My own Government, I can not be Silent.

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart.

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.

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.

Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

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.

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.

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

A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.

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

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.

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.

A man can't ride your back unless it's bent.

A riot is the language of the unheard.

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.

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.

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.

He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.

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

When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.

If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.

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

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

We are not makers of history. We are made by history.

Put yourself in a state of mind where you say to yourself, 'Here is an opportunity for me to celebrate like never before, my own power, my own ability to get myself to do whatever is necessary.

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.

We who in engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive.

Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

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.

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

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

The time is always right to do what is right.

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

I am not interested in power for power's sake, but I'm interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.

To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.

I have a dream today!

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.

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.

Darkness is only driven out with light, not more darkness.

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.

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

Nothing pains some people more than having to think

Seeing is not always believing.

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

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

We must use time creatively.

The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven.

Justice denied anywhere diminishes justice everywhere.

Lukewarm acceptance is more bewildering than outright rejection.

If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos.

The more there are riots, the more repressive actin will take place, and the more we face the danger of a right-wing takeover and eventually a fascist society.

It is a tragic mix-up when the United States spends 500,000 for every enemy soldier killed, and only 53 annually on the victims of poverty.

God is not merely interestd in the freedom of brown men, yellow men, red men and black men.He is interested in the freedom of the whole human race.

Carve a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of disappointment.

You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away, and that in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.

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

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.

When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love.

One who condones evils is just as guilty as the one who perpetrates it.

Our nettlesome task is to discover how to organize our strength into compelling power.

Life's most urgent question is: What are you doing for others?

The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.