Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes
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If a person sweeps streets for a living, he should sweep them as Michelangelo painted, as Beethoven composed, as Shakespear wrote.
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Whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can't ride your back unless it is bent.
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If you can't be a sun, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.
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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.
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We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.
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Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated.
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If you will protest courageously, and yet with dignity and Christian love, when the history books are written in future generations, the historians will have to pause and say, "There lived a great people-a black people-who injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization.
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I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.
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Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
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If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.
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Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in.
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Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.
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A time comes when silence is betrayal.
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Our lives are not fully lived if we're not willing to die for those we love, for what we believe.
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Love is creative and redemptive. Love builds up and unites; hate tears down and destroys. The aftermath of the ‘fight with fire’ method...is bitterness and chaos, the aftermath of the love method is reconciliation and creation of the beloved community...Yes , love-which means understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill, even for one’s enemies-is the solution.
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He (Jesus) knew that the old eye-for-eye philosophy would leave everyone blind. He did not seek to overcome evil with evil. He overcame evil with good. Although crucified by hate, he responded with aggressive love.
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In any civilized society, it is every citizen's responsibility to obey just laws. But at the same time, it is every citizen's responsibility to disobey unjust laws.
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It is always the right time to do the right thing.
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No man (sic) has learned to live until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. Length without breadth is like a self-contained tributary having no outward flow to the ocean. Stagnant, still and stale, it lacks both life and freshness. In order to live creatively and meaningfully, our self-concern must be wedded to other concerns.
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Power is the ability to achieve purpose.
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Alienation is a form of living death. It is the acid of despair that dissolves society.
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I am not afraid of the word tension.
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We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love.
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Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.