Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Quotes
The government can't make people love me, but it can keep them from lynching me.
Where evil men would seek to perpetuate an unjust status quo, good men must seek to bring into being a real order of justice.
We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.
There is little hope for us until we become tough-minded enough to break loose from the shackles of prejudice, half-truths, and down-right ignorance.
Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political moral questions of our time.
The problem of racism, the problem of economic exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together. These are the triple evils that are interrelated.
The greatest purveyor of violence in the world : My own Government, I can not be Silent.
Millions of citizens are deeply disturbed that the military-industrial complex too often shapes national policy, but they do not want to be considered unpatriotic.
School takes 13 years, because that is how long it takes to break a child's spirit.
Every crisis has both its dangers and its opportunities. Each can spell either salvation or doom.
Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless.
We in the West must bear in mind that the poor countries are poor primarily because we have exploited them through political or economic colonialism.
Be an artist at whatever you do. Even if you are a street sweeper, be the Michelangelo of street sweepers.
In the final analysis, means and ends must cohere because the end is preexistent in the means, and, ultimately, destructive means cannot bring about constructive ends.
The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.
If we do an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, we will be a blind and toothless nation.
We must recognize that we can't solve our problems now until there is a radical redistribution of economic and political power.... a radical restructuring of the architecture of American society.
A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.
The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.
The potential beauty of human life is constantly made ugly by man's ever-recurring song of retaliation.
Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.
Violence brings only temporary victories; violence, by creating many more social problems than it solves, never brings permanent peace.
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.
There are two types of laws: there are just laws and there are unjust laws... What is the difference between the two?...An unjust law is a man-made code that is out of harmony with the moral law.
Like a boil that must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed to the light of human conscience before it can be cured.
The sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.
I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.
Will we be extremists for hate, or will we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice, or will we be extremists for the cause of justice?
I am convinced that...in the struggle for righteousness man has cosmic companionship.
A second basic fact that characterizes nonviolence is that it does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his friendship and understanding.
The major problem of life is learning how to handle the costly interruptions.
Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
The more there are riots, the more repressive actin will take place, and the more we face the danger of a right-wing takeover and eventually a fascist society.
Whenever you are engaged in work that serves humanity and is for the building of humanity, it has dignity and it has worth.
It is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of high maturity, to rise to the level of self-criticism.
Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.
