We must use time creatively and forever realize that the time is always hope to do great things.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
—Letter from a Birmingham Jail, 1963

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

Our scientific powers have outrun our spiritual powers; we have guided missiles and mis-guided men.

When people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory.
—"I’ve Been to the Mountaintop" Memphis, Tennessee, April 4, 1968

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.
—"I Have a Dream," Washington DC, 1963

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

Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts… Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood.
—Nobel Prize acceptance speech, 1964

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

As long as the mind is enslaved, the body can never be free.
—"Where Do We Go from Here" Address to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, August 16, 1967

The greatest sin of our time is not the few who have destroyed but the vast majority who sat idly by.

Communism forgets that life is individual. Capitalism forgets that life is social, and the kingdom of brotherhood is found neither in the thesis of communism nor the antithesis of capitalism but in a higher synthesis. It is found in a higher synthesis that combines the truths of both.
—"Where Do We Go from Here" Address to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, August 16, 1967

Top

Launch Pad

End

It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it’s nonviolence or nonexistence.
—"I’ve Been to the Mountaintop" Memphis, Tennessee, April 4, 1968

If you haven’t found something to live for you better find something to die for.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
—"I Have a Dream," Washington DC, 1963

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
—April 4, 1967

Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness.
—"I’ve Been to the Mountaintop" Memphis, Tennessee, April 4, 1968

There is something strangely inconsistent about a nation and a press that would praise you when you say, "Be nonviolent toward — Jim Clark," but will curse and damn you when you say, "Be nonviolent toward little brown Vietnamese children."
—Speech at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia, April 30, 1967

One has not only a legal, but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.
—"Letter from a Birmingham Jail," 1963

We must combine the toughness of the serpent with the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.
—Nobel Prize acceptance speech, 1964

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

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
—"Letter from a Birmingham Jail," 1963

Life is a series of shattered dreams.

Quote of the Moment
Create Your Own Quotation
Comments, corrections, and new quotations