Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes
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We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters.
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An individual has not begun to live until he can rise above the narrow horizons of his particular individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. And this is one of the big problems of life, that so many people never quite get to the point of rising above self. And so they end up the tragic victims of self-centeredness. They end up the victims of distorted and disrupted personality.
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There is nothing in all the world greater than freedom. It is worth paying for; it is worth going to jail for. I would rather be a free pauper than a rich slave. I would rather die in abject poverty with my convictions than live in inordinate riches with the lack of self respect.
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[W]e are the heirs of a past of rope, fire, and murder. I for one am not ashamed of this past. My shame is for those who became so inhuman that they could inflict this torture upon us.
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As television beamed the image of this extraordinary gathering across the border oceans, everyone who believed in man's capacity to better himself had a moment of inspiration and confidence in the future of the human race.
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Nonviolence is an imperative in order to bring about ultimate community.
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Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.
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The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.
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We have before us the glorious opportunity to inject a new dimension of love into the veins of our civilization.
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Violence is not only impractical but immoral.
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Some things are right, whether nobody sees you doing them or not.
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Violence is anything that denies human integrity, and leads to hopelessness and helplessness.
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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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Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers. But the political leaders consistently refused to engage in good-faith negotiation.
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History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.
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I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
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There are some things concerning which we must always be maladjusted if we are to be people of good will. We must never adjust ourselves to racial segregation. We must never adjust ourselves to religious bigotry. We must never adjust ourselves to economic conditions that take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few.
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Our age is one of guided missiles and unguided men.
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On the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. "A Time to Break Silence," at Riverside Church.
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The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven.
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Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.
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If you can’t run, walk; if you can’t walk, crawl, but keep moving forward!
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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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My uncertainty disappeared. Segregation is evil, and I cannot, as a minister, condone evil.