Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes
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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.
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In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law . . That would lead to anarchy.
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A right delayed is a right denied.
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Forgiveness is not an occasional act. It is a permanent attitude. That which I was not but could have been. That which I would have done but did not do. Can I find the fortitude to remember in truth,to understand, to submit, to forgive and to be free to move on in time?
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We know of no more crucial civil rights issue facing Congress today than the need to increase the federal minimum wage and extend its coverage.
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We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now.
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O America, how you've taken necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes.
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When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.
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Moral principles have lost their distinctiveness. For modern man, absolute right and absolute wrong are a matter of what the majority is doing.
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Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity.
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We aren't going to have peace on Earth until we recognize the basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality.
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We must dispel the negative and harmful atmosphere that has been created by avaricious and unprincipled realtors who engage in "blockbusting." If we had in America really serious efforts to break down discrimination in housing, and at the same time a concerted program of government aid to improve housing for Negroes, I think that many white people would be surprised at how many Negroes would choose to live among themselves, exactly as Poles and Jews and other ethnic groups do.
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I would suffer all the humiliation, all the torture, the absolute ostracism and even death, to prevent violence.
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Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war.
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We are not makers of history. We are made by history.
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What you get with violence can be maintained only with violence.
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The bombs in Vietnam explode at home; they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America.
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[I]t must be emphasized that nonviolent resistance is not a method for cowards; it does resist. If one uses this method because he is afraid or merely because he lacks the instruments of violence, he is not truly nonviolent. This is why Gandhi often said that if cowardice is the only alternative to violence, it is better to fight.
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We must have our freedom now. We must have the right to vote. We must have equal protection of the law.
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If I knew that the world ends tomorrow, I, even today, plant a tree.
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I feel that when a white child goes to school only with white children, unconsciously that child grows up in many instances devoid of a world perspective. There is an unconscious provincialism, and it can develop into an unconscious superiority complex just as a Negro develops an unconscious inferiority complex.
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Courageous men never lose the zest for living even though their life situation is zestless; cowardly men, overwhelmed by the uncertainties of life, lose the will to live. We must constantly build dykes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.
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You see, my friends...you begin to ask the questions, 'Who owns the oil?' You begin to ask the question, 'Who owns the iron ore?' You begin to ask the question, 'Why is it that people have to pay water bills in a world that is two-thirds water?'
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Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.