Quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr.

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.

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.

War is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow.

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

Every man [human being] is an heir to a legacy of dignity and worth

We can either walk the highroad of brotherhood or the low road of man's inhumanity to man.

Man must never be treated as a means to the end of the state, but always as an end within himself.

My faith in man is, at bottom, a faith in God.

If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the hopes of men the world over.

In the final analysis the weakness of Black Power is its failure to see that the black man needs the white man and the white man needs the black man.

Moral principles have lost their distinctiveness. For modern man, absolute right and absolute wrong are a matter of what the majority is doing.

I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him.

Whatever my doubts, however heavy the burden, I feel that I must accept the task of helping to make this nation and this world a better place to live in - for all men, black and white alike.

Love is understanding, redemptive goodwill for all men, so that you love everybody.

The oppressed must never allow the conscience of the oppressor to slumber. Religion reminds every man that he is his brother's keeper.

Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the legitimate goals of his life.

Music is the best consolation for a despaired man.

A man who has nothing he is willing to die for has nothing worth living for

We must stand up and say, "I'm black and I'm beautiful," and this self-affirmation is the black man's need, made compelling by the white man's crimes against him.

If a man has not discovered anything so dying is not worth living

The greatness of man cannot be seen in the hours of comfort and convenience, but rather in moments of conflict/adversity

Just as it is the duty of all men to obey just laws, so it is the duty of all men to disobey unjust laws.

If a man hasn't found anything worth dying for, he hasn't anything worth living for.

To have peace in the world, men & nations must embrace the nonviolent assertion that ends and means must cohere.