Dr Martin Luther King Quotes

I hope that the opening of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial will be a life-altering experience that inspires every American to rededicate themselves to the fulfillment of Dr. King's dream. ~ Yvette Clarke

No one is free until we are all free.

Dr. Martin Luther King ~ Barbara Artson

Faith is the belief that certain outcomes will happen, and hope is the belief that certain outcomes can happen. So when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. says, "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice," he is speaking from a place of faith. He is confident that justice is inevitable, even if it may come in another lifetime. Faith is often rooted in the belief of a higher power, in God. Hope on the other hand would mean reframing the statement to say, "The arc of the moral universe is long, and it will bend toward justice, if we bend it. Faith is rooted in certainty, hope is rooted in possibility, and they both require their own different kinds of work. ~ DeRay Mckesson

In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., "No lie will last forever." We have to work at removing lies from our own hearts. And on the national level, we do this not because we blame our country, but because we love it. ~ Marianne Williamson

I want my kids to know that they're just as good and just as American as Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, or Dr. Martin Luther King. My worst fear is they will become ordinary. ~ Rafe Esquith

One of the books that has guided me in the last ten years of my life to help me to be that leader is the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh's Being Peace. He's a Vietnamese monk. He was nominated for a Peace Prize by Dr. Martin Luther King. ~ Sandra Cisneros

There's a gap somehow between empathy and activism. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of 'soul force' - something that emanates from a deep truth inside of us and empowers us to act. Once you identify your inner genius, you will be able to take action, whether it's writing a check or digging a well. ~ Sue Monk Kidd

The relationship between violence and nonviolence in this country is interesting. The fact of the matter is, you know, people do respond to riots. The 1968 Housing Act was in large response to riots that broke out after Dr. Martin Luther King was killed. They cited these as an actual inspiration. ~ Ta-Nehisi Coates

I was doing a civil rights musical here in Los Angeles, and we sang at one of the rallies where Dr. Martin Luther King spoke, and I remember the thrill I felt when we were introduced to him. To have him shake your hand was an absolutely unforgettable experience. ~ George Takei

I've always been inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, who articulated his Dream of an America where people are judged not by skin color but "by the content of their character." In the scientific world, people are judged by the content of their ideas. Advances are made with new insights, but the final arbitrator of any point of view are experiments that seek the unbiased truth, not information cherry picked to support a particular point of view. ~ Steven Chu

At Ken Lay's funeral service the minister compared him to Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior. The difference is Dr. King had a dream, Ken Lay had a scheme. ~ Jay Leno

Opponents of legal birth control, including abortion, have tried for decades to play the race card, saying that legal abortion is racist. What they ignore is that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. accepted the Margaret Sanger Award from Planned Parenthood in 1966. ~ Karen DeCrow

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is one of my personal heroes. ~ Ken Salazar

Maybe you have to know the darkness to truly appreciate the light." - Madeline L'Engle

"There is freedom waiting for you on the breezes of the sky. And you ask, What if I fall? Oh, but my darling, what if you fly?" - Erin Hanson

"Break the rules. That's my number one rule. I know the rules [of grammar] and I know how to break them."

"Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me." – Carol Burnett

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ~ Robin E. Mason

Changing the world doesn't require much money. Again, think in terms of empowerment and not charity. How much were Gandhi's teachers paid? How much did it cost to give Dr. Martin Luther King the books that catalyzed his mind and actions? ~ Tim Ferriss

It is no wonder that so much of the search for identity, among American Negroes, was championed by jazz musicians. Long before the modern essayists and scholars wrote of racial identity as a problem for a multiracial world, musicians were returning to their roots to affirm that which was stirring within their souls. Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from the music. It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail. It has calmed us with its rich harmonies when spirits were down. And now, Jazz is exported to the world. For, in a particular struggle of the Negro in America, there is something akin to the universal struggle of modern man. Everybody has
the Blues. Everybody longs for meaning. Everybody
needs to clap hands and be happy. Everybody longs for faith. In music, especially this broad category called jazz, there is a stepping-stone towards all these. ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

The spirit of Dr. [Martin Luther] King and the thousands of people he worked with set the races on a different course in the United States ... In that same spirit, we must have the courage - and teach our students the courage - to be bearers to the world of this transforming love, co-creators of a more deeply human world, collaborators with Christ in the building of God's Kingdom. ~ Peter Hans Kolvenbach

Let's go beyond the Trinity of African-American History. There are so many more to learn about other than Harriett Tubman, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks. ~ Karimah Grayson

What's that? My six song album entitled Bo Fo Sho is currently available on iTunes? With three songs that have never been heard on the internet? Uh, and if I try to pirate it for free I'll get AIDS? I would have guessed scurvy. Well, see you later ghost of Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. ~ Bo Burnham

America hasn't seen this type of ethnic polarization since the days leading up to the 1964 Civil Rights Act and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ~ Mark M. Bello

There's never been a film with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the center released in theaters. Ever! One does not exist. You've only seen tele-films and stage plays about him. Yet, we have big screens biopics about all kinds of people. So, I think it's only right that there be a full-length feature about Dr. King. I don't think there could be enough of them, but there should be at least one. So, here it is! ~ Ava DuVernay

Dr. Martin Luther King is not a black hero. He is an American hero ~ Morgan Freeman

You know, it's hard to say this, but I suspect that Obama is afraid either of blackmail potential or even worse. And he has referred to the killing of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in this main saying, "don't you remember what happened to Dr. King?" ~ Ray McGovern

In our times, significantly, the three outstanding voices against violence have been silenced by murder - Mahatma Gandhi in India, Archbishop Romero in El Salvador, and Dr. Martin Luther King, here at home. ~ Millicent Fenwick

My all-time heroes are Thurgood Marshall and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., two men who had to really work to achieve what they did. And I had the privilege of meeting them both. ~ Monte Irvin

Dr. Martin Luther King put it like this: "We are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside . . . but one day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that a system that produces beggars needs to be repaved. We are called to be the Good Samaritan, but after you lift so many people out of the ditch you start to ask, maybe the whole road to Jericho needs to be repaved."23 ~ Shane Claiborne

I have to pinch myself sometimes. It's unbelievable, but it's not. Because I know that this would not be happening if it hadn't been for Dr. Martin Luther King. ~ Mavis Staples

It's soul force that removed the English from India. It's soul force that brought down the Berlin Wall. It's soul force that gave life to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s struggle for civil rights. ~ Marianne Williamson

I'm an admirer of everything Dr. Martin Luther King stood for, but I don't think he would have stood for this ~ Andy Rooney

If Rosa Parks had not refused to move to the back of the bus, you and I might never have heard of Dr. Martin Luther King. ~ Ramsey Clark

I am thankful, however, that some of our white brothers have grasped the meaning of this social revolution and committed themselves to it. They are still all too small in quantity, but they are big in quality. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

The great military leaders of the past have gone, their empires have crumbled and burned to ashes. But the empire of Jesus, built solidly and majestically on the foundation of love, is still growing. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

We all have to be concerned about terrorism, but you will never end terrorism by terrorizing others. ~ Martin Luther King III

Just as it is the duty of all men to obey just laws, so it is the duty of all men to disobey unjust laws. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Wherever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being 'disturbers of the peace' and 'outside agitators.' But they went on with the conviction that they were a 'colony of heaven' and had to obey God rather than man. They were small in number but big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be 'astronomically intimidated.' They brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contest. Things are different now. The contemporary Church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the archsupporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the Church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the Church's silent and often vocal sanction of things as they are. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

A second thing that an individual must do in seeking to love his enemy is to discover the element of good in his enemy, and everytime you begin to hate that person and think of hating that
person, realize that there is some good there and look at those good points which will over-balance the bad points. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Be The Peace You Wish To See In The World! ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Never let your tiny age misguide you to think the time is not yet up. Get up and do it at any age. ~ Israelmore Ayivor

We must have the faith that things will work out somehow, that God will make a way for us when there seems no way. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. This may well be mankind's last chance to choose between chaos and community. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

All too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained-glass windows ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

It was the Sermon on the Mount, rather than a doctrine of passive resistance, that initially inspired the Negroes of Montgomery to dignified social action. It was Jesus of Nazareth that stirred the Negroes to protest with the creative weapon of love. As ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

The softminded person always wants to freeze the moment and hold life in the gripping yoke of sameness. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Seeing is not always believing. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Whenever you are engaged in work that serves humanity and is for the building of humanity, it has dignity and it has worth, ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Before it is too late, we must narrow the gaping chasm between our proclomations of peace and our lowly deeds which precipitate and perpetuate war. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

But why is God so slow in conquering the forces of evil? Why does not God break in and smash the evil schemes of wicked men? ... We are responsible human beings, not blind automatons; persons, not puppets. By endowing us with freedom, God relinquished a measure of his own sovereignty and imposed certain limitations upon himself. If his children are free, they must do his will by a voluntary choice. Therefore, God cannot at the same time impose his will upon his children and also maintain his purpose for man. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammed, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Stokely Carmichael, Amiri Baraka and other black male leaders have righteously supported patriarchy. They have all argued that it is absolutely necessary for black men to relegate black women to a subordinate position both in the political sphere and in home life. ~ Bell Hooks

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

We may win a battle, but if in doing so we have planted thousands of seeds of hatred and fear..the war is not over- only the present conflict has ceased. There will be no peace as long as we react to violence with violence. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Israel ... is one of the great outpost of democracy in the world ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

A man does not measure its height in moments of comfort, but in terms of change and controversy ~ 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.

When an innocent man is kidnapped from his home by bearded Arab gunmen and locked indefinitely in a room he is a "hostage." But when an innocent man is kidnapped from his home by uniformed white gunmen and locked indefinitely in a room he is a "terrorist." The world causes uproar over the former but is silent over the latter. "In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends," observed Martin Luther King. ~ Babar Ahmad

I decide on the basis of conscience. A genuine leader doesn't reflect consensus, he molds consensus. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

For you all think God is one who rewards good and punishes evil, but I say to you that God is one who loves you and has compassion for everyone. You just have to pray to Him and believe in Him. He will always be your guiding light. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the struggle for equal rights. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Some people criticize the faithful for getting involved in politics, but it's important to remember that down through the centuries, people motivated by their faith have done many important things. Martin Luther King Jr. - motivated by his faith - brought about an end to segregation in our country. ~ Frank Wolf