Martin Luther Jr. King (1929-1968)

Quotes

• A right delayed is a right denied.

• All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

• 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. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail.

• Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right.

• Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.

• Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.

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

• I am not interested in power for power's sake, but I'm interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.

• I want to be the white man's brother, not his brother-in-law.

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

• Religion operates not only on the vertical plane but also on the horizontal. It seeks not only to integrate men with God but to integrate men with men and each man with himself.

• A riot is the language of the unheard.

• 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.

• Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

• Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.

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

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

• 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.

• From the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire, let freedom ring. From the mighty mountains of New York, let freedom ring. From the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania, let freedom ring. But not only that: Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

• I just want to do God's will.