Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes
-
The time has come for America to hear the truth about this tragic war. In international conflicts, the truth is hard to come by because most nations are deceived about themselves. Rationalizations and the incessant search for scapegoats are the psychological cataracts that blind us to our sins. But the day has passed for superficial patriotism. He who lives with untruth lives in spiritual slavery.
-
Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the legitimate goals of his life.
-
Non-violent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored... I am not afraid of the word tension. I have earnestly worked and preached against violent tension, and there is a type of constructive tension that is necessary for growth.
-
Resistance and nonviolence are not in themselves good. There is another element that must be present in our struggle that then makes our resistance and nonviolence truly meaningful. That element is reconciliation. Our ultimate end must be the creation of the beloved community
-
Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.
-
A man who hasn't found anything he'd die for doesn't deserve to live.
-
Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity.
-
We've been in the mountain of war. We've been in the mountain of violence. We've been in the mountain of hatred long enough. It is necessary to move on now, but only by moving out of this mountain can we move to the promised land of justice and brotherhood and the Kingdom of God. It all boils down to the fact that we must never allow ourselves to become satisfied with unattained goals. We must always maintain a kind of divine discontent.
-
As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation -- either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.
-
Every person must stand up and be accountable, but be responsible for their actions.
-
We can dream of an America, and a world, in which love and not money are civilization's bottom line.
-
But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends.
-
Is is always time to do the right thing.
-
A productive and happy life is not something you find; it is something you make.
-
Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
-
Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism... We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now.
-
Agape means recognition of the fact that all life is interrelated. All humanity is involved in a single process, and all men are brothers. To the degree that I harm my brother, no matter what he is doing to me, to that extent I am harming myself.
-
Quietly endure, silently suffer and patiently wait.
-
A society is always eager to cover misdeeds with a cloak of forgetfulness, but no society can fully repress an ugly past when the ravages persist into the present. America owes a debt of justice which it has only begun to pay.
-
Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service.
-
I just want to leave a committed life behind.
-
The Christian faith makes it possible for us nobly to accept that which cannot be changed, and to meet disappointments and sorrow with an inner poise, and to absorb the most intense pain without abandoning our sense of hope.
-
Forgiveness does not mean ignoring what has been done or putting a false label on an evil act. It means, rather, that the evil act no longer remains as a barrier to the relationship. Forgiveness is a catalyst creating the atmosphere necessary for a fresh start and a new beginning.
-
Often the oppressor goes along unaware of the evil involved in his oppression so long as the oppressed accepts it.