Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Quotes

Even in the inevitable moments when all seems hopeless, men know that without hope they cannot really live, and in agonizing desperation they cry for the bread of hope.

The whole world must see that Israel must exist and has the right to exist, and is one of the great outposts of democracy in the world.

Nonviolence is the most potent technique for oppressed people. Unearned suffering is redemptive.

The failures of the past must not be an excuse for the inaction of the present and the future.

A man can't ride your back unless it's bent.

He who is greatest among you shall be a servant. That's the new definition of greatness. ... By giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.

The curse of poverty has no justification in our age.

There is such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.

Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts.

Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the struggle for equal rights.

One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.

The Darwinian concept of the survival of the fittest has been substituted by a philosophy of the survival of the slickest.

Our age is one of guided missiles and unguided men.

This is the unusual thing about nonviolence -- nobody is defeated, everybody shares in the victory.

The greatest pain is the pain of a new idea.

We can never travel beyond the arms of the Divine.

There is something in the soul that cries out for freedom.

Be true to what you said on paper.

Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.

In order to be true to one's conscience and true to God, a righteous man has no alternative but to refuse to cooperate with an evil system.

Without love, benevolence becomes egotism.

There is no sound more powerful than the marching feet of a determined people.

I refuse to accept the idea that the “isness” of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal “oughtness” that forever confronts him.

One of the great tragedies of life is that men seldom bridge the gulf between practice and profession, between doing and saying.

If your opponent has a conscience, then follow Gandhi and nonviolence. But if your enemy has no conscience like Hitler, then follow Bonhoeffer.

I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed, without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today – my own government.

This Revolution is genuine because it was born from the same womb that always gives birth to massive social upheavals - the womb of intolerable conditions and unendurable situations.

Every man [human being] is an heir to a legacy of dignity and worth

Life isn't worth living until you have found something worth dying for.

It all boils down to this: that all life is interrelated.

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.

Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals. They are complementary.

To be Negro in America is to hope against hope.

Time has been used destructively by people of ill will much more than it has been used constructively by those of good will.

I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.

Great people aren't those who are happy at times of convienience and content, but of how they are in times of catastrophy and controversy.

Violence is anything that denies human integrity, and leads to hopelessness and helplessness.

Be concerned about your brother...eithe r we go up together, or we go down together.

I am not afraid of the word tension.

Another reason why we must love our enemies is that hate scars the soul and distorts the personality.

"I criticize America because I love her. I want her to stand as a moral example to the world."

I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham.

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.

When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You are talking anti-Semitism.

For all of us today, the battle is in our hands. The road ahead is not altogether a smooth one. There are no broad highways to lead us easily and inevitably to quick solutions. We must keep going.

Another way that you love your enemy is this: When the opportunity presents itself for you to defeat your enemy, that is the time which you must not do it.

A true revolution of values will see that the western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our present policies.

Your self-sacrificin g devotion to your purpose in life and your unwavering faith will carry you through times of difficulty.

The idea of a superior or inferior race is a myth that has been completely refuted by anthropological evidence.