Martin Luther King Jr.
American Baptist minister, civil rights leader, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Drawing on the nonviolent satyagraha of Gandhi, the social gospel of Walter Rauschenbusch, and the Black church tradition, King led the Montgomery bus boycott, the Birmingham campaign, and the March on Washington — and articulated, in speeches and books, a vision of the "beloved community" grounded in agape love and economic justice. Assassinated in Memphis in 1968 at the age of 39, his words remain a foundational text of American moral imagination.
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quotes in library
Quotes by Martin Luther King Jr.
104 quotes“There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us.”
humanityStrength to Love
“We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.”
unitySpeeches and Letters
“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.”
perseveranceSpeeches and Letters
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically.”
educationSpeeches and Letters
“A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.”
meaningStride Toward Freedom
“Power without love is reckless and abusive. Love without power is sentimental and anemic.”
powerWhere Do We Go from Here
“Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice.”
powerWhere Do We Go from Here
“Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.”
justiceWhere Do We Go from Here
“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”
interdependenceLetter from Birmingham Jail
“The soft-minded man always fears change.”
changeStrength to Love
“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
interdependenceLetter from Birmingham Jail
“I want to be the white man's brother, not his brother-in-law.”
brotherhoodStride Toward Freedom
“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
ignoranceStrength to Love
“He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.”
forgivenessStrength to Love
“To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it.”
evilWhere Do We Go from Here
“Cowardice asks the question: is it safe? Expediency asks: is it politic? Vanity asks: is it popular? But conscience asks: is it right?”
conscienceStrength to Love
“Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.”
minoritySpeeches and Letters
“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
brotherhoodSpeeches and Letters
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
loveStrength to Love
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