Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Quotes

There may be a conflict between softminded religionists and toughminded scientists, but not between science and religion.

Love is a usually force able of transforming an rivalry into friend.

Love is creative, understanding goodwill for all men. It is the refusal to defeat any individual.

Education without direction is a one-sided social value. Direct action without education is a meaningless expression of pure energy.

You cannot defect form an insight. You cannot unsee what you have seen.

My soul is too glad and too great to be at heart the enemy of any man

We are called upon to help the discouraged beggars in life's marketplace. But one day we must come to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.

Our nettlesome task is to discover how to organize our strength into compelling power.

Evil must be attacked by. . . the day to day assault of the battering rams of justice.

In the current struggle, there is one positive course of action. There is no alternative, for the alternative would connote a rear march.

In this world is a God whose matchless strength is a fit contrast to the sordid weakness of man.

If a person sweeps streets for a living, he should sweep them as Michelangelo painted, as Beethoven composed, as Shakespear wrote.

It's not how long a man lives, but how well he uses the time allotted him.

As marvelous as the stars is the mind of the person who studies them.

The world in which we live is geographically one. The challenge that we face today is to make it one in terms of brotherhood.

Hate destroys the very structure of the personality of the hater.

In the struggle for human rights and justice, Negros will make a mistake if they become bitter and indulge in hate campaigns.

There is something wrong with our world, something fundamentally and basically wrong.

We must follow nonviolence and love.

It's just as evil to kill Vietnamese as it is to kill Americans.

Never could I advocate nonviolence in this country and not advocate nonviolence for the whole world.

Before it is too late, we must narrow the gaping chasm between our proclomations of peace and our lowly deeds which precipitate and perpetuate war.

To sway an audience, you must watch them as you speak.

A man who hasn't found anything he'd die for doesn't deserve to live.

Three simple words can describe the nature of the social revolution that is talking place and what Negroes really want. They are the words "all," "now," and "here."

I have a dream! To be free at last! Free at last! Free at last. And if a man has nothing to die for, Then his life is worth nothing.

We cannot walk alone.

My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure.

If I lived in a Communist country today where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I believe I would openly advocate disobeying these anti-religious laws.

The contemporary church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo.

Slaves do not always welcome their deliverers. They become accustomed to being slaves. They would rather gear those ills they have

Nonviolence is an imperative in order to bring about ultimate community.

The negro cannot win the respect of the white people of the south or the peoples of the world if he is willing to sell the future of his children for his personal and immediate comfort and safety.

The Negro cannot win the respect of his oppressor by acquiescing; he merely increases the oppressor's arrogance and contempt.

Through nonviolent resistance the Negro will be able to rise to the noble height of opposing the unjust system while loving the perpetrators of the system.

Violence is not the way.

If the Negro is to achieve the goal of integration, he must organize himself into a militant and nonviolent mass movement.

By nonviolent resistance, the Negro can also enlist all men of good will in his struggle for equality.

The ultimate solution to the race problem lies in the willingness of men to obey the unenforceable.

A riot is the language of the unheard. On blacks in America; address at Birmingham AL

Everyone has an opportunity to be great because everyone has an opportunity to serve.

The modern choice is between non-violence or non-existence.

I know that God is not going to willfully hurt us. Why there is suffering is the business of the Lord, but He never seems to give us more than we can bear.

There are more Negroes in jail with me than there are on the voting rolls.

To deny a man a job is to say that a man has no right to exist.

Those of us who love peace must organize as effectively as the war hawks. As they spread the propaganda of war, we must spread the propaganda of peace.

God is not merely interestd in the freedom of brown men, yellow men, red men and black men.He is interested in the freedom of the whole human race.

Every word and deed must contribute to an understanding with the enemy and release those vast reservoirs of goodwill which have been blocked by impenetrable walls of hate.

True sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one's soul.

It is my hope that as the Negro plunges deeper into the quest for freedom and justice he will plunge even deeper into the philosophy of non-violence.