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.