Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes

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

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.

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

May I stress the need for courageous, intelligent, and dedicated leadership... Leaders of sound integrity. Leaders not in love with publicity, but in love with justice. Leaders not in love with money, but in love with humanity. Leaders who can subject their particular egos to the greatness of the cause.

If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.

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.

It's not the violence of the few that scares me, it's the silence of the many

Never, never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.

Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

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

Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'

Let's build bridges, not walls.

Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love.

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. Nothing worthwhile is easy. Your ability to overcome unfavorable situations will provide you with time to demonstrate your true strength and determination for success. Always set your standards high, your greatest achievements lie within the infinite feats you achieve in your life.

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

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.

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate... Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

Perhaps the worst sin in life is knowing right and not doing it.

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

I still believe that standing up for the truth of God is the greatest thing in the world. This is the end (purpose) of life. The end of life is not to be happy. The end of life is not to achieve pleasure and avoid pain. The end of life is to do the will of God, come what may.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others. In dangerous valleys and hazardous pathways, he will lift some bruised and beaten brother to a higher and more noble life.

I agree with Dante, that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. There comes a time when silence becomes betrayal.

Quietly endure, silently suffer and patiently wait.

The richer we have become materially, the poorer we become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly in the air like birds and swim in the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.

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

Peace is not simply the absence of conflict, but the existence of justice for all people.

Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service.

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

The time is always right to do what is right.

This is the great new problem of mankind. We have inherited a large house, a great ‘world house’ in which we have to live together– black and white, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, Muslim and Hindu– a family unduly separated in ideas, culture and interest, who, because we can never again live apart, must learn somehow to live with each other in peace.

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

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.

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

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. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. 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.

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.

Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.

We must learn that passively to accept an unjust system is to cooperate with that system, and thereby to become a participant in its evil.

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.

I admire the good samaritan, but I don't want to be one.I don't want to spend my life picking up people by the side of the road after they have been beaten up and robbed.I want to change the Jericho road, so that everybody has an opportunity for a job, education, security, health.

The difference between a dreamer and a visionary is that a dreamer has his eyes closed and a visionary has his eyes open

We must face the appalling fact that we have been betrayed by both the Democratic and Republican Parties.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

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

We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there "is" such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and postive action.

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.

I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.

There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we have the resources to get rid of it.

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

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