He was an American activist, clergyman, and prominent leader in the African-American civil rights movement. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States, and he has become a human rights icon. In 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial discrimination, racial segregation and decided to turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.
On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated. (1929 – 1968)
– Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes –
Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
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.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
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.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Negro needs the white man to free him from his fears. The white man needs the Negro to free him from his guilt.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
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.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
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.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
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.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
That old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
A lie cannot live.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
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.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
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.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
A man can’t ride your back unless it’s bent.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
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?”
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Science investigates religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power religion gives man wisdom which is control.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Pity may represent little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, but true sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one’s soul.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
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.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
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.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
We must all learn to live as brothers. Or we will all perish as fools.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
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.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Seeing is not always believing.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
The time is always right to do what is right.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
War is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
