Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes

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.

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.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

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.

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

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

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

The principle of self defense, even involving weapons and bloodshed, has never been condemned, even by Gandhi.

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.

The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be… The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

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

A productive and happy life is not something you find; it is something you make.

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.

We must use time creatively.

Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.