Quotes by Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear."

"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear."

"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. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies."

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate only love can do that."

"The sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality."

"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor it must be demanded by the oppressed."

"The sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality."

"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood."

"We are not makers of history. We are made by history."

"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."

"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."

"Science investigates religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power religion gives man wisdom which is control."

"I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land."

"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."

"If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive."

"A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan."

"A man who won't die for something is not fit to live."

"There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth."

"The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important."

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'"

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate only love can do that."

"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."

"The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict."

"I am not interested in power for power's sake, but I'm interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good."

"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. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies."

"We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people."

"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. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies."

"The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one."

"Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."

"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent."

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."

"The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people."

"One of the greatest casualties of the war in Vietnam is the Great Society... shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam."

"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."

"Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal."

"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."

"There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love."

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."

"The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?'"

"Property is intended to serve life, and no matter how much we surround it with rights and respect, it has no personal being. It is part of the earth man walks on. It is not man."

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."

"The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood."

"We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear."

"A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus."

"We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear."

"Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will."

"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."

"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent."

"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope."

"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."