Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes
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For you will never be what you ought to be until they [your fellow humans] are what they ought to be.
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It's not how long a man lives, but how well he uses the time allotted him.
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It is not possible to be in favor of justice for some people and not be in favor of justice for all people.
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The only time people do not like praise is when too much of it is going toward someone else.
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Hate destroys the very structure of the personality of the hater. [...] when you start hating anybody, it destroys the very center of your creative response to life and the universe; so love everybody.
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The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others.
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I came to the conclusion that there is an existential moment in your life when you must decide to speak for yourself; nobody else can speak for you.
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We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience.
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If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, Maybe I could understand some of these illegal injunctions. ... But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of the press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right.
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Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
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The truth may hurt, but love helps ease the pain.
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Through our scientific and technological genius we've made of this world a neighborhood. And now through our moral and ethical commitment we must make of it a brotherhood. We must all learn to live together as brothers-or we will all perish together as fools.
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We ain't goin' study war no more.
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Courage faces fear and thereby masters it. Cowardice represses fear and is thereby mastered by it.
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Capital punishment is against the best judgment of modern criminology and, above all, against the highest expression of love in the nature of God.
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Everybody has the blues. Everybody longs for meaning. Everybody needs to love and be loved. Everybody needs to clap hands and be happy. Everybody longs for faith. In music, especially this broad category called jazz, there is a stepping-stone to all of these.
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Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's often vocal sanction of things as they are.
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When our days become dreary with low hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.
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God has given each normal person a capacity to achieve some end. True, some are endowed with more talent than others, but God has left none of us talentless.
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Racial understanding is not something we find, but something that we must create. Through education, we seek to change attitudes.
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Darkness cannot be overcome with more darkness, only with light. Violence cannot be overcome with more violence, only with peace.
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History has thrust something upon me from which I cannot turn away.
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Lord help me to see M. L. King as M. L. King in his true perspective.
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If you want to move people, it has to be toward a vision that's positive for them, that taps important values, that gets them something they desire and it has to be presented in a compelling way so that they feel inspired to follow.