Martin Luther King Jr Quotes

We have compiled some MLK quotes for you.

Martin Luther King Jr Quotes

Find some of the Most Powerful Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes below. They range from love, life, equality, education, progress, freedom, and more.

1. “We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”

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

3. “Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.”

4. “Lightning makes no sound until it strikes.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

5. “We are not makers of history. We are made by history.”

6. “Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. ”

7. “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.”

8. “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.” “All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”

9. “Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.”

10. “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.”

11. “Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.”

12. “When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative. ”

13. “There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November.”

14. “A lie cannot live.”

15. “Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”

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16. “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

17. “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” -Martin Luther King Jr.

18. “The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life, is what is important.” -Martin Luther King Jr.

19. “There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.”

20. “He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.”

21. “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.”

22. “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

23. “The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows”

24. “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

25. “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.”

You might also be interested in: Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes on Leadership

26. “Nonviolence is absolute commitment to the way of love. Love is not emotional bash; it is not empty sentimentalism. It is the active outpouring of one’s whole being into the being of another.”

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

28. “It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.”

29. “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” -Martin Luther King Jr.

30. “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

31. “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.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

32. “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.”

33. “Every man lives in two realms: the internal and the external. The internal is that realm of spiritual ends expressed in art, literature, morals, and religion. The external is that complex of devices, techniques, mechanisms, and instrumentalities by means of which we live.”

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34. “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”

35. “That old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.”

36. “We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to mankind.”

37. “I came to the conclusion that there is an existential moment in your life when you must decide to speak for yourself; nobody else can speak for you.” -Martin Luther King Jr.

38. “Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a constant attitude.”

39. “Ten thousand fools proclaim themselves into obscurity, while one wise man forgets himself into immortality.”

40. “If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.”

41. “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.” -Martin Luther King Jr.

42. “The soft-minded man always fears change. He feels security in the status quo, and he has an almost morbid fear of the new. For him, the greatest pain is the pain of a new idea.”

43. “Seeing is not always believing.”

44. “We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

45. “What is wrong in the world today is that the nations of the world are engaged in a bitter, colossal contest for supremacy.”

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

47. “All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.” -Martin Luther King Jr.

48. “I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.”

49. “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”

50. “We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience.”

51. “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.”

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

53. “The more there are riots, the more repressive action will take place, and the more we face the danger of a right-wing takeover and eventually a fascist society.”

54. “We who in engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive.”

55. “At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.”

56. “Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

57. “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

58. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” -Martin Luther King Jr.

59. “The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.”

60. “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.”

61. The time is always right to do what is right.

62. So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.

63. “Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.”

64. “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”

65. “Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

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

67. “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

68. “Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.”

69. “People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”

70. “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.”

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes on Leadership

Martin Luther King Jr. is well known to be the greatest civil rights leaders, searching for fairness and human rights. He was well spoken and a leader.

1. “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

2. “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

3. “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.”

4. “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” – MLK Jr.

5. “Ten thousand fools proclaim themselves into obscurity, while one wise man forgets himself into immortality.”

6. “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability but comes through continuous struggle.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

7. “If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.”

8. “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”

9. “We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to mankind.”

10. “Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.”

You might also be interested in: Inspirational Martin Luther King Jr Quotes

11. “Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great because greatness is determined by service… You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love.”

12. “I came to the conclusion that there is an existential moment in your life when you must decide to speak for yourself; nobody else can speak for you.” -Martin Luther King Jr.

13. “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”

14. “The soft-minded man always fears change. He feels security in the status quo, and he has an almost morbid fear of the new. For him, the greatest pain is the pain of a new idea.”

15. “We cannot walk alone.”

16. “Only in the darkness can you see the stars.”

17. “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.”

18. “Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.”

19. “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”

20. “We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”

21. “Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a constant attitude.”

22. “When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative. ”

You might also be interested in: Martin Luther King Jr Quotes

23. “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.”

24. “Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. “

25. “No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they’d die for.”

26. “We are not makers of history. We are made by history. “

27. “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

28. “People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”

29. “If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.”

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Leadership Quotes Martin Luther King

Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our souls when we look the other way.

The time is always right to do the right thing

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

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

Freedom is never voluntarily granted by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed

I will not be intimidated, I will not be harassed. I will not be silent, and I will be heard

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere

Leadership never ascends from the pew to the pulpit, but invariably descends from the pulpit to the pew.

All progress is precarious, and the solution to one problem brings us face-to-face with another problem

Creative power can pull down mountains of evil and level hilltops of injustice.

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

I submit to you that if a man hasn’t discovered something he will die for, he isn’t fit to live

The measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge

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

There are some things so dear, some things so precious, some things so eternally true, that they are worth dying for. And I submit to you that if a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.

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

No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence

A right delayed is a right denied

True peace is not merely the absence of tension. It is the presence of justice

One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws

 

Martin Luther King Jr Quotes on Love

1. “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

2. “He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.”

3. “There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.”4. “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.”

5. “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

6. “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.”

7. “Nonviolence is an absolute commitment to the way of love. Love is not emotional bash; it is not empty sentimentalism. It is the active outpouring of one’s whole being into the being of another.”

Martin Luther King Love Quotes

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

2. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

3. “The surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

4. “It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for

5. In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

6. “Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a constant attitude.”

7. “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?'”

8. “The time is always right to do what is right.”

9. “At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.”

10. “To serve, you only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

11. “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy to a friend.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

12. “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.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr Quotes About Love

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase

Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic

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.

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

Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love.

We must in strength and humility meet hate with love

Be the peace you wish to see in the world

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

In some not-too-distant tomorrow, the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.

Power properly understood is nothing but the ability to achieve purpose… one of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites – polar opposites – so that love is identified with a resignation of power, and power with a denial of love.

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.

This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class, and nation is, in reality, a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all men

This often misunderstood and misinterpreted concept has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man

When I speak of love, I am speaking of that force that all the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life

Love is the key that unlocks the door which leads to the ultimate reality

There is nothing more dangerous than to build a society with a large segment of people in that society who feel that they have no stake in it; who feel that they have nothing to lose. People who have a stake in their society, protect that society, but when they don’t have it, they unconsciously want to destroy it.

Make a career of humanity… It will enrich your spirit as nothing else possibly can. It will give you that rare sense of nobility that can only spring from love and selflessly helping your fellow man… You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in.

Whenever you are engaged in work that serves humanity and is for the building of humanity, it has dignity and it has worth.

Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.

I am convinced that love is the most durable power in the world. It is not an expression of impractical idealism, but of practical realism.

Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, love is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization. To return hate for hate does nothing but intensify the existence of evil in the universe.

Someone must have sense enough and religion enough to cut off the chain of hate and evil, and this can only be done through love.

Forgiveness does not mean ignoring what has been done or putting a false label on an evil act. It means, rather, that the evil act no longer remains as a barrier to the relationship. Forgiveness is a catalyst creating the atmosphere necessary for a fresh start and a new beginning.

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.