Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes

May I stress the need for courageous, intelligent, and dedicated leadership… Leaders of sound integrity. Leaders not in love with publicity, but in love with justice. Leaders not in love with money, but in love with humanity. Leaders who can subject their particular egos to the greatness of the cause.

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.

Seeing is not always believing.

The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility.

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.

Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.

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.

At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.

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

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

Means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.

You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the postive affirmation of peace.

The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.