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Quotes by Martin Luther King Jr.

US black civil rights leader & clergyman (1929 - 1968)

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Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.

I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live.

Now, I say to you today my friends, 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. 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.'

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

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

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.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

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

...And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. So I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man.

If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values -- that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.

When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.

Segregation is the adultery of an illicit intercourse between injustice and immorality.

I submit that 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.

Ten thousand fools proclaim themselves into obscurity, while one wise man forgets himself into immortality.

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

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.

But I know somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.

Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

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

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

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

The time is always right to do what is right.

Wisdom born of experience should tell us that war is obsolete. There may have been a time when war served as a negative good by preventing the spread and growth of an evil force... If we assume that life is worth living, if we assume that mankind has the right to survive, then we must find an alternative to war.

Courage is the power of the mind to overcome fear.

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.

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

We have flown the air like birds and swum the seas like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.

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

The church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.

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

If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause and say, "Here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well."

Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on an installment plan.

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars... Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.

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

One who condones evils is just as guilty as the one who perpetrates it.

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

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

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.