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

"Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
— Martin Luther King Jr. (I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World, Special 75th Anniversary Edition)

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

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

"Let no man pull you low enough to hate him."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"If you can't fly then run, if you can't run the walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"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."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"A man who won't die for something is not fit to live."
— Martin Luther King Jr. (The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.)

"Never, never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

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

"Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"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."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

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

"I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls. "
— Martin Luther King Jr. (I Have A Dream)

"Not only will we have to repent for the sins of bad people; but we also will have to repent for the appalling silence of good people."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo 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 street sweeper who did his job well."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"The choice is not between violence and nonviolence but between nonviolence and nonexistence."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" And Vanity comes along and asks the question, "Is it popular?" But Conscience asks the question "Is it right?" And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation were they will not be judge by the color of their skin but by the content of their character ."
— Martin Luther King Jr. (I Have a Dream: Twenty-Four Writings and Speeches That Changed the World)

"the time is always right to do the right thing"
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"Only in the darkness can you see the stars."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they have not communicated with each other."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy to a friend."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

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

"No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they'd die for."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?"
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so 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."

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.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

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.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

""Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.""
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"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."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

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

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars... Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. "
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation -- either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"The ultimate measure of a person is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where they stand in times of challenge and controversy."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"And so 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."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"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."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"A right delayed is a right denied."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"Everyone has the power for greatness—not for fame, but greatness, because greatness is determined by service."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

"The Arc of the Moral Universe Is Long, but It Bends Toward Justice"
— Martin Luther King Jr.