Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes
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It's not the violence of the few that scares me, it's the silence of the many.
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We must substitute courage for caution.
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Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
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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 the law.
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The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
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Science investigates, religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power, religion gives man wisdom which is control. Science deals mainly with facts, religion deals with values. The two are not rivals. They are complementary.
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It may be true that the law cannot change the heart but it can restrain the heartless.
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Our goal is to create a beloved community," said Dr. King, "and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.
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Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.
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Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love.
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Nothing degrades a man do more than the allowed stoop so low as to hate someone.
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I never cease to wonder at the amazing presumption of much of white society, assuming that they have the right to bargain with the Negro for his freedom.
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Many white Americans of good will have never connected bigotry with economic exploitation. They have deplored prejudice but tolerated or ignored economic injustice.
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To have peace in the world, men & nations must embrace the nonviolent assertion that ends and means must cohere.
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Be an artist at whatever you do. Even if you are a street sweeper, be the Michelangelo of street sweepers.
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What affects one in a major way, affects all in a minor way.
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The reason I can't follow the old eye-for-an-eye philosophy is that it ends up leaving everyone blind.
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Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?" and "Are you able to endure the ordeals of jail?"
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The end of violence or the aftermath of violence is bitterness. The aftermath of nonviolence is reconciliation and the creation of a beloved community. A boycott is never an end within itself. It is merely a means to awaken a sense of shame within the oppressor but the end is reconciliation, the end is redemption.
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The real problem is that through our scientific genius we’ve made of the world a neighborhood, but through our moral and spiritual genius we’ve failed to make of it a brotherhood.
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Three simple words can describe the nature of the social revolution that is talking place and what Negroes really want. They are the words "all," "now," and "here."
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We must face the appalling fact that we have been betrayed by both the Democratic and Republican Parties.
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The contemporary church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo.
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While the question of who killed President Kennedy is important, the question 'what killed him' is more important.