Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Quotes

Nonviolent resistance makes it possible for the Negro to remain in the South and struggle for his rights. The Negro's problem will not be solved by running away.

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

It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.

Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

Commit yourself to the noble struggle for human rights. You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country and a finer world to live in.

The best way to solve any problem is to remove its cause.

The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

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.

I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind.

To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it.

We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.

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.

Each one of us has the power to make others feel better or worse. Making others feel better is much more fun than making others feel worse. Making others feel better generally makes us feel better

I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.

The principle of nonviolent resistance seeks to reconcile the truths of two opposites-Acquiescence and violence -while avoiding the extremes and immoralities of both.

Love is the most durable power in the world. This creative force is the most potent instrument available in mankind's quest for peace and security.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.

Look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin.

Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love.

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.

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 is always the right time to do the right thing.

No person has the right to rain on your dreams.

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.

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

I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective -- the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.

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

It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.

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.

We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. This may well be mankind's last chance to choose between chaos and community.

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

An eye for an eye leaves everybody blind.

What good does it do to sit at the counter when you cannot afford a hamburger?

Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched across the pages of history the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence, we were here.

I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.

Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.

We must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers .

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.

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.

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

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

Jesus Christ was an extremist for love, truth and goodness.

Many white Americans of good will have never connected bigotry with economic exploitation. They have deplored prejudice but tolerated or ignored economic injustice.

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.

Our eternal message of hope is that dawn will come.

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

We all too often have socialism for the rich and rugged free market capitalism for the poor.

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

The bombs in Vietnam explode at home; they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America.