Quotes By Martin Luther King Jr.

Property is intended to serve life, and no matter how much we surround it with rights and respect, it has no personal being. It is part of the earth man walks on. It is not man.

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.

A riot is the language of the unheard.

The time is always right to do what is right.

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.

We who in engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive.

A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.

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.

When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.

Means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

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.

Seeing is not always believing.

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

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

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.

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

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.