Quotes by Martin Luther King

“A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.”

“A riot is the language of the unheard.”

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”

“Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles.”

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

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

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

“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”

“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.”

“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”

“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.”

“Injustice is a threat to justice anywhere.”

“It is always the right time to do the right thing.”

“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.”

“No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they’d die for.”

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

“One day we will have to repent not only for the words and actions of bad people, but for the appalling silence of good people.”

“One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”

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

“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.”

“The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state.”

“The dream of the past is now the hope of the present and the future.”

“The dream of today is the vision of tomorrow.”

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically.”

“The only way to deal with this world is with love.”

“The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important.”

“The time is always right to do what is right.”

“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”

“There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.”

“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.”

“There comes a time when silence is betrayal.”

“There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of the power of life.”

“To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it.”

“We are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

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

“We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.”

“We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak.”