A lie cannot live.

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

The choice is not between violence and nonviolence but between nonviolence and nonexistence.

My call to the ministry was not a miraculous or supernatural something. On the contrary it was an inner urge calling me to serve humanity.

I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost...

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...

What affects one in a major way, affects all in a minor way.

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.

Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.

A right delayed is a right denied.

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

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.