Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes
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In struggling for human dignity the oppressed people of the world must not allow themselves to become bitter or indulge in hate campaigns. To retaliate with hate and bitterness would do nothing but intensify the hate in the world. Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can be done only by projecting the ethics of love to the center of our lives.
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Worship is as natural to the human family as the sing of the sun is to the cosmic order.
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There is a more excellent way, of love and nonviolent protest.
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When we ask Negroes to abide by the law, let us also declare that the white man does not abide by law in the ghettos. Day in and day out he violates welfare laws to deprive the poor of their meager allotments; he flagrantly violates building codes and regulations; his police make a mockery of law; he violates laws on equal employment and education and the provisions of civil services. The slums are the handiwork of a vicious system of the white society; Negroes live in them, but they do not make them, any more than a prisoner makes a prison.
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We must shift the arms race into a 'peace race'.
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The law of "An eye for an eye" will eventually leave everyone blind.
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The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important.
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I am convinced that love is the most durable power in the world. It is not an expression of impractical idealism, but of practical realism. Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, love is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization. To return hate for hate does nothing but intensify the existence of evil in the universe. Someone must have sense enough and religion enough to cut off the chain of hate and evil, and this can only be done through love.
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Your self-sacrificing devotion to your purpose in life and your unwavering faith will carry you through times of difficulty.
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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.
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I refuse to accept the view . . . that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.
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The great issue of life is to harness the drum major instinct.
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Be The Peace You Wish To See In The World!
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The major problem of life is learning how to handle the costly interruptions. The door that slams shut, the plan that got sidetracked, the marriage that failed. Or that lovely poem that didn't get written because someone knocked on the door.
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We must work passionately and indefatigably to bridge the gulf between our scientific progress and our moral progress. One of the great problems of mankind is that we suffer from a poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually.
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Let us be those creative dissenters who will call our beloved nation to a higher destiny. To a new plateau of compassion, to a more noble expression of humanness.
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The government can't make people love me, but it can keep them from lynching me.
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One who condones evils is just as guilty as the one who perpetrates it.
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We talk eloquently about our commitment to the principles of Christianity, and yet our lives are saturated with the practices of paganism. We proclaim our devotion to democracy, but we sadly practice the very opposite of the democratic creed.... This strange dichotomy, this agonizing gulf between the ought and the is, represents the tragic theme of man's earthly pilgrimage.
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[nonviolence] seeks to secure moral ends through moral means.
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In order to love your enemies, you must begin by analyzing self.
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From my Christian formation've gotten my ideals and technique Gandhi action.
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A social movement that only moves people is merely a revolt. A movement that changes both people and institutions is a revolution.
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The Negro needs the white man to free him from his fears. The white man needs the Negro to free him from his guilt.