Like anybody, I would like to have a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will.

There is nothing more majestic than the determined courage of individuals willing to suffer and sacrifice for their freedom and dignity.

It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation. Not merely for the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence and indifference of...

One cannot worship the false god of nationalism and the God of Christianity at the same time. .

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

I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is...

As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation — either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative...

One of the grat tragedies of life is that men seldom bridge the gulf between practice and profession, between doing and saying. A persistent schizophrenia leaves so many of us tragically divided against ourselves. On...

I am convinced that love is the most durable power in the world. It is not an expression of impractical idealism, but of practical realism. Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer,...

No one can pretend that because a people may be oppressed, every individual member is virtuous and worthy.

The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

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

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

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

I have a dream. . .

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

As a young man with most of my life ahead of me, I decided early to give my life to something eternal and absolute. Not to these little gods that are here today and gone...

Quietly endure, silently suffer and patiently wait.

In some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars… Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed, without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today – my own government.

I was in the kitchen drinking coffee when I heard Coretta cry, “Martin, Martin, come quickly!” I put down my cup and ran toward the living room. As I approached the front window Coretta pointed...

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.

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.

There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.

We must substitute courage for caution.

Not ordinarily do men achieve this balance of opposites. The idealists are not usually realistic, and the realists are not usually idealistic. The militant are not generally known to be passive, nor the passive to...

It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tired into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one destiny, affects all indirectly.

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

One day we will learn that the heart can never be totally right when the head is totally wrong

The greatest purveyor of violence in the world : My own Government, I can not be Silent.

All this is simply to say that all life is interrelated. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality; tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. As...

A social movement that only moves people is merely a revolt. A movement that changes both people and institutions is a revolution.

When religion becomes so involved in a future good “over yonder” that it forgets the present evils over here it is as dry as dust religion and needs to be condemned.

Find a voice in a whisper.

Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.

I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I...

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. … A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the...

Communism forgets that life is individual. Capitalism forgets that life is social, and the kingdom of brotherhood is found neither in the thesis of communism nor the antithesis of capitalism but in a higher synthesis....

the time is always right to do the right thing

Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do...

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.

But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars.

Nonviolence is power, but it is the right and good use of power.

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

We are faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words ‘Too...

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

And when you discover what you will be in your life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it. Don’t just set out...

This Revolution is genuine because it was born from the same womb that always gives birth to massive social upheavals – the womb of intolerable conditions and unendurable situations.

…The straitjackets of race prejudice and discrimination do not wear only southern labels. The subtle, psychological technique of the North has approached in its ugliness and victimization of the Negro the outright terror and open...