Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes



Martin Luther King, Jr., was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the American Civil Rights movement.

His philosophy of nonviolent direct action { following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi}

and his strategies for rational and non-destructive social change, captured the conscience of The United States and caused the country to reexamine its priorities.

In 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize

for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other nonviolent means.

When notified of his selection, Dr. King announced that he would turn over the prize money to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.

On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march

in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.



Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

We must have the faith that things will work out somehow, that God will make a way for us when there seems no way.

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Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation.

The foundation of such a method is love.

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I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war

that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

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I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.

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

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

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

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History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people,

but the appalling silence of the good people.

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In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies,

but the silence of our friends.

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

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The time is always right to do what is right.

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Let us never fight with falsehood and violence and hate and malice,

but always fight with love.


More Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.

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Freedom is never given to anybody, for the oppressor has you in domination because he plans to keep you there, and he never voluntarily gives it up.

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If we wait for it to work itself out, it will never be worked out.

Freedom only comes through persistent revolt, through persistent agitation, through persistently rising up against the system of evil.

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We’ve got to revolt in such a way that after revolt is over we can live with people as their brothers and their sisters.

Our aim must never be to defeat them or humiliate them.

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In focusing the attention of the nation and the world today on the flagrant denial of the right to vote,

we are exposing the very origin, the root cause, of racial segregation in the South land.

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Like an idea whose time has come, not even the marching of mighty armies can halt us.

We are moving to the land of freedom.

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Excerpts from speech given by Dr. Martin Luther king Jr. at the “March on Washington”

“I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.

It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed; ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day, even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.”

“I have a dream that my four 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.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification,

one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with the little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.”

“This hope is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the south with.

And with this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.

With this faith we will be able:to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.”

“...And so let freedom ring, from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that.

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and mole hill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when we allow freedom to ring – when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city,

we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles,

Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last, free at last.

Thank God almighty, we are free at last.”




In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:

"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."

Visit The Martin Luther King Jr. Center

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