Martin Luther King Jr.
American Baptist minister and civil rights leader, 1929-1968
72 quotes.
Quotes by Martin Luther King Jr.
- A man can’t ride your back unless it’s bent.
- A productive and happy life is not something you find; it is something you make.
- All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
- An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.
- Carve a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of disappointment.
- Courage faces fear and thereby masters it.
- Courage is the power of the mind to overcome fear.
- Cowardice asks the question, “Is it safe?” Expediency asks the question, “Is it politic?” And Vanity comes along and asks the question, “Is it popular?” But Conscience asks the question, “Is it right?”
- Darkness is only driven out with light, not more darkness.
- Every crisis has both its dangers and its opportunities. It can spell either salvation or doom.
- Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.
- Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.
- Everyone has the power for greatness, not for fame but greatness, because greatness is determined by service.
- Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.
- Find your sense of importance in something outside of the self.
- Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.
- Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love.
- Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.
- He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.
- How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
- 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.
- 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.
- I have decided to stick with love. Hatred is too great a burden to bear.
- I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
- If I cannot do great things. I can do small things in a great 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.
- Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Therefore, no American can afford to be apathetic about the problem of racial justice. It is a problem that meets every man at his front door.
- Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
- Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.
- Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.
- It is always the right time to do the right thing.
- Keep feeling the need for being first. But I want you to be the first in love. I want you to be the first in moral excellence. I want you to be the first in generosity.
- Keep moving. Let nothing slow you up. Move on with dignity and honor and respectability.
- Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.
- Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’
- My obligation is to do the right thing. The rest is in God’s hands.
- No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity
- Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
- One of the great tragedies of life is that men seldom bridge the gulf between practice and profession, between doing and saying.
- One of the sure signs of maturity is the ability to rise to the point of self criticism.