50 Famous Quotes by Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Black clergyman who advocated social change through non-violent means. (Martin Luther King Biography).
Martin Luther King Famous Quotes
1. "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
2. "If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live."
3. "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."
4. "Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
5. "In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
6. "We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."
7. "The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people."
8. "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."
9. "Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."
10. "Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals."
11. "We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope."
12. "The time is always right to do what is right."
13. "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."
14. "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."
15. "Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'"
16. "Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend."
17. "I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
18. "We are not makers of history. We are made by history."
19. "Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."
20. "He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."
21. "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."
22. "A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus."
23. "Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."
24. "Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."
25. "We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now."
26. "I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear."
27. "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
28. "That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing."
29. "Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see."
30. "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom."
31. "A lie cannot live."
32. "Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness."
33. "We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies."
34. "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."
35. "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."
36. "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."
37. "A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true."
38. "Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think."
39. "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 it is right."
40. "There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love."
41. "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."
42. "Capitalism does not permit an even flow of economic resources. With this system, a small privileged few are rich beyond conscience, and almost all others are doomed to be poor at some level. That's the way the system works. And since we know that the system will not change the rules, we are going to have to change the system."
43. "The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important."
44. "All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence."
45. "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."
46. "Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness."
47. "I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go to the mountain. 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."
48. "We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear."
49. "The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?'"
50. "To other countries, I may go as a tourist, but to India, I come as a pilgrim."
― Martin Luther King Quotes
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
