Quotes By Martin Luther King Jr.

The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be... The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.

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

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

Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.

War is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow.

The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.

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

Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

The Negro needs the white man to free him from his fears. The white man needs the Negro to free him from his guilt.

If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.

Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.

Science investigates religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power religion gives man wisdom which is control.

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

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.

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

One who breaks an unjust 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 law.

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.

That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.

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

The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.

If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.

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.

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.

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.

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