Martin Luther Jr. King (1929-1968)

Quotes

• 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 to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.

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

• All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.

• The time is always right to do what is right.

• I've seen too much hate to want to hate, myself, and every time I see it, I say to myself, hate is too great a burden to bear. Somehow we must be able to stand up against our most bitter opponents and say: We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will and we will still love you.... But be assured that we'll wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for ourselves; we will appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.

• Wisdom born of experience should tell us that war is obsolete.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 must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal we seek, but it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means.

• 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.

• 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.

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

• 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.

• The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.

• When evil men plot, good men must plan.