- If I wish to compose or write or pray or preach well, I must be angry. Then all the blood in my veins is stirred, and my understanding is sharpened.
- I have a dream, that my four little children will grow up in a nation where they will not judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
- A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.
- [referring to Mohandas K. Gandhi and his philosophy of non-violence] Jesus gave me the message, Gandhi showed me the method.
- [from his final speech, 3 April 1968] We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up 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. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything! I'm not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!
- Don't let anybody make you think God chose America as His divine messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with justice and it seems I can hear God saying to America, "You're too arrogant, and if you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power, and I will place it in the hands of a nation that doesn't even know my name. Be still and know that I'm God. Men will beat their swords into plowshafts and their spears into pruning hooks, and nations shall not rise up against nations, neither shall they study war anymore." I don't know about you, I ain't going to study war anymore.
- 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.
- I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live.
- It may be true that the law can't change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless.
- Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' And vanity comes along and asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?'
- I am more concerned about doing a good job, doing something for humanity and what I consider the will of God, than about longevity. Untimately it isn't so important how long you live. The important thing is how well you live.
- We live in a failed system. Capitalism does not permit an even flow of economic resources. With this system, a small privileged few are rich beyond conscience, and almost all others are doomed to be poor at some level. That's the way the system works. And since we know that the system will not change the rules, we are going to have to change the system.
- We fought hard and long and I have never doubted that we would prevail in the struggle. Already our rewards have begun to reveal themselves. Desegregation. The Voting Rights Act. But what deeply troubles me now is that for all the steps we have taken toward integration, I've come to believe we're integrating into a burning house. I guess we're just going to have to become firemen.
- Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
- Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
- [on the Birmingham church bombing, September 23, 2013] God still has a way of wringing good out of evil. And history has proven over and over again that unmerited suffering is redemptive. The innocent blood of these little girls may well serve as a redemptive force that will bring new light to this dark city.
- There is this word we hear so often now, "Maladjusted". Well, in this Cause I am proud to be Maladjusted.
- Our lives begin to end the day we remain silent about things that matter.
- He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.
- In the end, we will not remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
- Nothing in the World is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
- We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
- Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.
- The arc of the moral universe is long, but it tends towards justice.
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