Quotes by King Jr. Martin Luther

"We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people."

King Jr. Martin Luther on acceptance
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"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

King Jr. Martin Luther on adversity
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"The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important."

King Jr. Martin Luther on age and aging
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"There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love."

King Jr. Martin Luther on disappointments
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"No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."

King Jr. Martin Luther on action
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"Now, I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. 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."

King Jr. Martin Luther on dream
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"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation when they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

King Jr. Martin Luther on dream
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"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"

King Jr. Martin Luther on equality
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This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

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

King Jr. Martin Luther on evil
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"If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well."

King Jr. Martin Luther on excellence
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"The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be."

King Jr. Martin Luther on extremes and extremists
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"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."

King Jr. Martin Luther on freedom
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"When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of that old Negro spiritual, Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

King Jr. Martin Luther on freedom
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"The Negro needs the white man to free him from his fears. The white man needs the Negro to free him from his guilt."

King Jr. Martin Luther on freedom
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"Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. you only need a heart full of grace. a soul generated by love."

King Jr. Martin Luther on greatness
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"Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it."

King Jr. Martin Luther on hatred
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"The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict."

King Jr. Martin Luther on hell
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"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope."

King Jr. Martin Luther on hope
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"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood."

King Jr. Martin Luther on fellowship
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This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."

King Jr. Martin Luther on humankind
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"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."

King Jr. Martin Luther on ignorance
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"Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart."

King Jr. Martin Luther on joy
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"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

King Jr. Martin Luther on justice
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"Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress."

King Jr. Martin Luther on law and lawyers
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"It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important."

King Jr. Martin Luther on law and lawyers
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"I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate."

King Jr. Martin Luther on liberals
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"Darkness can not drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

King Jr. Martin Luther on love
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"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear."

King Jr. Martin Luther on love
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"At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love."

King Jr. Martin Luther on love
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"We must combine the toughness of the serpent with the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart."

King Jr. Martin Luther on mind
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"Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless."

King Jr. Martin Luther on morality
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"It is my hope that as the Negro plunges deeper into the quest for freedom and justice he will plunge even deeper into the philosophy of non-violence. The Negro all over the South must come to the point that he can say to his white brother: We will match your capacity to inflict suffering with our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. We will not hate you, but we will not obey your evil laws. We will soon wear you down by pure capacity to suffer."

King Jr. Martin Luther on nonviolence
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"The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows."

King Jr. Martin Luther on past
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"Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal."

King Jr. Martin Luther on peace
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"All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem."

King Jr. Martin Luther on progress
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"Property is intended to serve life, and no matter how much we surround it with rights and respect, it has no personal being. It is part of the earth man walks on. It is not man."

King Jr. Martin Luther on property
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"We who in engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive."

King Jr. Martin Luther on protest
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"One who breaks an unjust law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law."

King Jr. Martin Luther on protest
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"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."

King Jr. Martin Luther on reality
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"A riot is the language of the unheard."

King Jr. Martin Luther on rebellion
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