Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes

Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

The choice is not between violence and nonviolence but between nonviolence and nonexistence.

Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude.

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.

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

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.

Our lives begin to end the day we remain silent about things that matter.

Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase.

the time is always right to do the right thing

The time is always right to do what is right.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.

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.

Don't hate, it's too big a burden to bear.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.

Life's most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?

The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.

We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.

I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.

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.

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.

We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.

We are not makers of history. We are made by history.

Whatever your life's work is, do it well.

A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.

The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be.

Nothing pains some people more than having to think.

A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.

That old law about an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind.

The time is always right to do the right thing.

At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.

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

Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.

The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.

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

The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important.

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.

All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.

We must combine the toughness of the serpent with the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart.

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

War is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow.

A lie cannot live.

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.