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

One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.

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...

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

I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.

God is able to give you the power to endure that which cannot be changed… Why be anxious? Come what may, God is able.

And one day we must ask the question, “Why are there forty million poor people in America?” And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a...

Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.

Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.

Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war.

No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

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

We can all get more together than we can apart. And this is the way we gain power. Power is the ability to achieve purpose, power is the ability to effect change, and we need...

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

On some positions, cowardice asks the question, is it expedient? And then expedience comes along and asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? Conscience asks the question, is it...

Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere. Anyone who lives inside the US can never be considered an outsider anywhere in the country

we shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will. And we shall continue to love...

I always contended that we as a race must not seek to rise from a position of disadvantage to one of advantage, but to create a moral balance in society where democracy and brotherhood would...

Even today there still exists in the South–and in certain areas of the North–the license that our society allows to unjust officials who implement their authority in the name of justice to practice injustice against...

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

I said to my children, ‘I’m going to work and do everything that I can do to see that you get a good education. I don’t ever want you to forget that there are millions...

Admitting the weighty problems and staggering disappointments, Christianity affirms that God is able to give us the power to meet them. He is able to give us inner equilibrium to stand tall amid the trials...

What I’m saying to you this morning is that 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 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.