Martin Luther King Jr.
American Baptist minister and civil rights leader, 1929-1968
72 quotes.
Quotes by Martin Luther King Jr.
- Only in the darkness can you see the stars.
- Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
- Perhaps the worst sin in life is knowing right and not doing it.
- Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic.
- The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.
- The greatness of our God lies in the fact that He is both toughminded and tenderhearted.
- The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided man.
- The richer we have become materially, the poorer we become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly in the air like birds and swim in the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.
- The time is always right to do what’s right.
- 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.
- 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.
- There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth.
- There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.
- Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.
- True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.
- Ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.
- We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now.
- We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.
- We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.
- We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us.
- We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. brothers or perish together as fools.
- We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.
- Whatever your life’s work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.
- When people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory.
- You can have no influence over those for whom you have underlying contempt.
- You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.
- You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.
- Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
- Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy to a friend.
- Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only love can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that. Hatred paralyses life, love releases it. Hatred confuses life, love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life, love illuminates it. I have decided to stick with love. Hatred is too great a burden to bear.
- If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or as Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will pause and say, 'Here lived a great street-sweeper who did his job well.'
- Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.