Quotes By Martin Luther King Jr.

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.

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

A man can't ride your back unless it's bent.

The time is always right to do what is right.

Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.

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.

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

The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important.

The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

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

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

The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.

The sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.

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.

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.

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.

We have guided missiles and misguided men.

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.

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.

If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values - that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.

At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.

The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility.

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.

There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth.

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.

We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.

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?"