32 Powerful Quotes from Martin Luther King Jr.

We are not makers of history. We are made by history.

Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.

Never succumb to the temptation of becoming bitter.

Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.

True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.

Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, “What are you doing for others?”

Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a better person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in.

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.

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

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.

Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.

We cannot walk alone.

Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

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 my four little 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.

Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.

A right delayed is a right denied.

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.

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

The time is always right to do what is right.

I have the personal faith that mankind will somehow rise up to the occasion and give new directions to an age drifting rapidly to its doom

Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends up defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and b

Forgiveness is not an occasional act. It is a permanent attitude.

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

A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.

Hate is too great a burden to bear. I have decided to love.

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

I oppose the war in Vietnam because I love America. I speak out against it not in anger but with anxiety and sorrow in my heart, and above all with a passionate desire to see our beloved country stand as a moral example of the world.

There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.

We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.