Quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr.

To have serpentlike qualities devoid of dovelike qualities is to be passionless, mean, and selfish.

I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular hometown.

Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.

We had no alternative except that of preparing for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and national community.

Lightning makes no sound until it strikes.

My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure.

If I lived in a Communist country today where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I believe I would openly advocate disobeying these anti-religious laws.

The contemporary church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo.

Slaves do not always welcome their deliverers. They become accustomed to being slaves. They would rather gear those ills they have

Nonviolence is an imperative in order to bring about ultimate community.

Through nonviolent resistance the Negro will be able to rise to the noble height of opposing the unjust system while loving the perpetrators of the system.

Violence is not the way.

If the Negro is to achieve the goal of integration, he must organize himself into a militant and nonviolent mass movement.

We were not unmindful of the difficulties involved. So we decided to go through a process of self-purification.

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.

We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

the time is always right to do the right thing

Pity may represent little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, but true sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one's soul.

Power is the ability to achieve purpose.

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.

Nonviolence is power, but it is the right and good use of power.

To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.

I want to be the white man's brother, not his brother-in-law.

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.