110+ Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes on on Civil Rights Activism and Equality

Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American civil rights leader in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a leader of the African-American Civil Rights Movement and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He is best known for his campaigns to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Martin Luther King, Jr. on courage, leadership, equality.

Top 10 Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes

1. Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.
2. In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
3. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
4. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
5. I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.
6. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
7. Let's build bridges, not walls.
8. The time is always right to do what is right.
9. If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.
10. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Image Quotes

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The time is always right to do what is right. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

the time is always right to do the right thing — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Short Quotes

• We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.
• It's not the violence of the few that scares me, it's the silence of the many
• Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.
• Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service.
• Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
• Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase.
• We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.
• the time is always right to do the right thing
• Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
• The choice is not between violence and nonviolence but between nonviolence and nonexistence.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes About Courage

Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles; Cowardice is submissive surrender to circumstances. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

If you will protest courageously, and yet with dignity and Christian love, when the history books are written in future generations, the historians will have to pause and say, "There lived a great people-a black people-who injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Courage is the power of the mind to overcome fear. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

There is nothing more majestic than the determined courage of individuals willing to suffer and sacrifice for their freedom and dignity. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The nonviolent approach does not immediately change the heart of the oppressor. It first does something to the hearts and souls of those committed to it. It gives them new self-respect; it calls up resources of strength and courage they did not know they had. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must substitute courage for caution. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

When the Negro finds the courage to be free, he faces dogs and guns and clubs and fire hoses totally unafraid, and the white men with those dogs, guns, clubs and fire hoses see that the Negro they have traditionally called "boy" has become a man. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Courage faces fear and thereby masters it. Cowardice represses fear and is thereby mastered by it. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes About Leadership

Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. [...] You only need a heart full of grace. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

You only need a heart full of grace — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

I think a revolution can survive without single centralized leadership. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

I decide on the basis of conscience. A genuine leader doesn't reflect consensus, he molds consensus. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

I think there can be a collective leadership. Maybe some symbolize the struggle [for human's rights] a little more than others, but I think it's absolutely necessary for the leadership to be united in order to make the revolution effective. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

I do think there must be centralized leadership in the sense that, say, in our struggle all of the leaders coordinate their efforts, cooperate and, and at least evince a degree of unity. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

I must face the fact, as all others in positions of leadership must do, that America today is an extremely sick nation, and that something could well happen to me at any time. I feel, though, that my cause is so right, so moral, that if I should lose my life, in some way it would aid the cause. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes About Equality

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed; We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal — Martin Luther King, Jr.

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. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

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. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

It is our experience that the nation doesn't move around questions of genuine equality for the poor and for black people until it is confronted massively, dramatically in terms of direct action. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes About Unity

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false, and the false with the true. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hate is just as injurious to the hater as it is to the hated. Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Many of our inner conflicts are rooted in hate. This is why the psychiatrists say, "Love or perish." Hate is too great a burden to bear. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Unity has never meant uniformity. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes About Education

Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

I admire the good samaritan, but I don't want to be one.I don't want to spend my life picking up people by the side of the road after they have been beaten up and robbed.I want to change the Jericho road, so that everybody has an opportunity for a job, education, security, health. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

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. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Education without social action is a one-sided value because it has no true power potential. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

I think the inconveniences of a segregated education are much greater than the inconveniences of busing students so that they can get an integrated quality education. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education. The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes About Love

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Unconditional love will have the final word in reality. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes About Kindness

Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The question is not if we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Some things are right, whether nobody sees you doing them or not. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our generation will not have regretted both perverse crimes, and the eerie silence of the kind — Martin Luther King, Jr.

I think if we, say, if all of the major leaders in this struggle [for human's rights] were at, at war with each other, then I think it would be very difficult to make this social revolution the kind of powerful revolution that it's proved to be. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

It all boils down to the fact that we must never allow ourselves to become satisfied with unattained goals. We must always maintain a kind of divine discontent. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes About Inspiring

The richer we have become materially, the poorer we become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly in the air like birds and swim in the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Quietly endure, silently suffer and patiently wait. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Be The Peace You Wish To See In The World! — Martin Luther King, Jr.

One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The principle of nonviolent resistance seeks to reconcile the truths of two opposites-Acquiescence and violence -while avoiding the extremes and immoralities of both. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched across the pages of history the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence, we were here. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes About Courageous

Courageous men never lose the zest for living even though their life situation is zestless; cowardly men, overwhelmed by the uncertainties of life, lose the will to live. We must constantly build dykes of courage to hold back the flood of fear. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Courage faces fear and thereby masters it — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear. That old law about "an eye for an eye" leaves everybody blind... The time is always right to do the right thing. Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Never, never be afraid to do what's right. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes About People

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Peace is not simply the absence of conflict, but the existence of justice for all people. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that a system that produces beggars needs to be repaved. We are called to be the Good Samaritan, but after you lift so many people out of the ditch you start to ask, maybe the whole road to Jericho needs to be repaved. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

When you cut facilities, slash jobs, abuse power, discriminate, drive people into deeper poverty & shoot people dead whilst refusing to provide answers or justice, the people will rise up & express their anger & frustration if you refuse to hear their cries. A riot is the language of the unheard. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

I question and soul-search constantly into myself to be as certain as I can that I am fulfilling the true meaning of my work, that I am maintaining my sense of purpose, that I am holding fast to my ideals, that I am guiding my people in the right direction. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

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. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The SILENCE of the good people is more DANGEROUS than the BRUTALITY of the bad people — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes About Live

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

We live in a world of guided missiles and misguided men. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

All too many of those who live in affluent America ignore those who exist in poor America; in doing so, the affluent Americans will eventually have to face themselves with the question that Eichman chose to ignore: How responsible am I for the well-being of my fellows? — Martin Luther King, Jr.

These are the times for real choices and not false ones. We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

If our economic system is to survive, there has to be a better distribution of wealth ... we can't have a system where some people live in superfluous, inordinate wealth, while others live in abject deadening poverty. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

If I can help somebody as I pass along, if I can cheer somebody with a word or song, if I can show somebody he's traveling wrong, then my living will not be in vain. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes About Hate

Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

He (Jesus) knew that the old eye-for-eye philosophy would leave everyone blind. He did not seek to overcome evil with evil. He overcame evil with good. Although crucified by hate, he responded with aggressive love. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Through violence, you may murder the hater, but you do not murder the hate. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

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? — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Let no man pull you so low as to hate him. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Returning hate, adding deeper darkness to a night that is already void of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hate destroys the very structure of the personality of the hater. [...] when you start hating anybody, it destroys the very center of your creative response to life and the universe; so love everybody. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy... In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes About Conscience

An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

There comes a time when one must take the position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must do it because conscience tells him it is right. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

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. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind. It destroys communities and makes humanity impossible. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers... In winning our freedom, we will so appeal to you heart and conscience that we will win you in the process. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Man was born into barbarism when killing his fellow man was a normal condition of existence. He became endowed with a conscience. And he has now reached the day when violence toward another human being must become as abhorrent as eating another's flesh. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

There comes a time when a moral man can't obey a law which his conscience tells him is unjust. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

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

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. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Famous Quotes And Sayings

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The time is always right to do what is right. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

I still believe that standing up for the truth of God is the greatest thing in the world. This is the end (purpose) of life. The end of life is not to be happy. The end of life is not to achieve pleasure and avoid pain. The end of life is to do the will of God, come what may. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

I agree with Dante, that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. There comes a time when silence becomes betrayal. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

the time is always right to do the right thing — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The difference between a dreamer and a visionary is that a dreamer has his eyes closed and a visionary has his eyes open — Martin Luther King, Jr.

May I stress the need for courageous, intelligent, and dedicated leadership... Leaders of sound integrity. Leaders not in love with publicity, but in love with justice. Leaders not in love with money, but in love with humanity. Leaders who can subject their particular egos to the greatness of the cause. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there "is" such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and postive action. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers and sisters. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

This will be the day when we shall bring into full realization the dream of American democracy - a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed; a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must combine the toughness of the serpent with the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Life's piano can only produce melodies of brotherhood (and sisterhood) when it is recognized that the black keys are as basic, necessary and beautiful as the white keys. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Curse of poverty has no justification in our age...The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, such as 'right-to-work.' It provides no 'rights' and no 'works.' Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining…. We demand this fraud be stopped. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The great issue of life is to harness the drum major instinct. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human and, therefore, brothers. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

One day the absurdity of the almost universal human belief in the slavery of other animals will be palpable. We shall then have discovered our souls and become worthier of sharing this planet with them. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

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. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must discover the power of love, the power, the redemptive power of love. And when we discover that we will be able to make of this old world a new world. We will be able to make men better. Love is the only way. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

We have deluded ourselves into believing the myth that capitalism grew and prospered out of the Protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifices. Capitalism was built on the exploitation of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor, both black and white, both here and abroad. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The poor in our countries have been shut out of our minds and driven from the mainstream of our societies, because we have allowed them to become invisible. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

In some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The time has come for an all-out war against poverty. The rich nations must use their vast resources of wealth to develop the underdeveloped, school the unschooled, and feed the unfed. Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation. No individual or nation can be great if it does not have a concern for "the least of these". — Martin Luther King, Jr.

No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Injustice and corruption will never be transformed by keeping them hidden, but only by bringing them out into the light and confronting them with the power of love. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God's children. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Capital punishment is against the best judgment of modern criminology and, above all, against the highest expression of love in the nature of God. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nonviolent resistance makes it possible for the Negro to remain in the South and struggle for his rights. The Negro's problem will not be solved by running away. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The reason I can't follow the old eye-for-an-eye philosophy is that it ends up leaving everyone blind. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our present policies... True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. A true revolution of values will soon look on uneasily upon the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth with righteous indignation. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Life Lessons by Martin Luther King, Jr.

1. Martin Luther King, Jr. taught us the importance of standing up for what we believe in and fighting for justice and equality for all people.
2. He showed us the power of peaceful protest and the importance of perseverance in the face of adversity.
3. He also taught us the importance of treating others with respect and kindness, regardless of race, religion, or other differences.