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“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.”
prayerStrength to Love
“Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.”
justiceI Have a Dream
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
justiceWhere Do We Go from Here
“What I'm asking you to do tonight is to remain non-violent, no matter how great your provocation.”
nonviolenceSpeeches and Letters
“The real tragedy of the South is not the bad people; it is the silence over them by the good people.”
silenceLetter from Birmingham Jail
“Yes, we may all do something to make this old world a little better place.”
worldStrength to Love
“Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle.”
justiceWhere Do We Go from Here
“The nonviolent resister must often express his protest through noncooperation or boycotts, but he realizes that these are not ends themselves; they are merely means to awaken a sense of moral shame in the opponent.”
nonviolenceStride Toward Freedom
“There are some things in our society and in our world that I'm proud to be maladjusted to.”
maladjustmentSpeeches and Letters
“The universe is on the side of justice.”
justiceWhere Do We Go from Here
“To accept passively an unjust system is to cooperate with that system.”
injusticeLetter from Birmingham Jail
“He was love incarnate.”
loveStrength to Love
“Lightning makes no sound until it strikes.”
actionStrength to Love
“Even the most vicious mob will respect a person who acts with quiet dignity.”
dignityStride Toward Freedom
“Faith is the act of building cathedrals you will never see complete.”
faithStrength to Love
“The moral arc may be long, but it requires our hands to bend it.”
actionWhere Do We Go from Here
“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through continuous struggle.”
changeLetter from Birmingham Jail
“There is power in unity and there is power in numbers.”
unityStride Toward Freedom
“Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
hateWhere Do We Go from Here
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