Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Quotes
We must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."
The question is no longer between violence and non-violence it is between non-violence and non-existence.
Black Power alone is no more insurance against social injustice than white power.
Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has consistently refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.
One of these days I'm going to put my body where my mind is.
What is more tragic than to see a person who has risen to the disciplined heights of tough-mindedness but has at the same time sunk to the passionless depths of hard-heartedness?
Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.
Just as it is the duty of all men to obey just laws, so it is the duty of all men to disobey unjust laws.
One who breaks an unjust law that conscience tells him is unjust ... is in reality expressing the highest respect for law ... We will not obey your evil laws.
Within the best of us, there is some evil, and within the worst of us, there is some good. When we come to see this, we take a different attitude toward individuals.
Never succumb to the temptation of becoming bitter. As you press for justice, be sure to move with dignity and discipline, using only the instruments of love.
To accept injustice or segregation passively is to say to the oppressor that his actions are morally right.
Without hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the primitive forces of social stagnation. So we must help time and realize that the time is always ripe to do right.
My parents would always tell me that I should not hate the white man, but that it was my duty as a Christian to love him.
I have a dream, one dream, keep dreaming. Dream of freedom, justice dreaming, dreaming of equality and hopefully no longer required to dream them
Our lives are not fully lived if we're not willing to die for those we love, for what we believe.
The more I thought about human nature, the more I saw how our tragic inclination for sin/mistakes causes us to use our minds to rationalize our action.
I'm grateful to God that, through the Negro church, the dimension of nonviolence entered our struggle.
I'll tell you, I've seen the lightning flash. I've heard the thunder roll. I felt sin-breakers dashing, trying to conquer my soul. But I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on.
Now a lot of us are preachers, and all of us have our moral convictions and concerns, and so often have problems with power. There is nothing wrong with power if power is used correctly.
In our society, it is psychological murder to deprive a man of a job...you are in substance saying to that man "You have no right to exist.
Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups are more immoral than individuals.
To have serpentlike qualities devoid of dovelike qualities is to be passionless, mean, and selfish.
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.
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.
We all can't be famous but we can all be great and we become great when we serve others
My uncertainty disappeared. Segregation is evil, and I cannot, as a minister, condone evil.
While the question of who killed President Kennedy is important, the question 'what killed him' is more important.
