Martin Luther King Jr Quotes

"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane. Speech to the Second National Convention of the Medical Committee for Human Rights – Chicago (25 March 1966), as quoted in Dan Munro, "America's Forgotten Civil Right - Healthcare", Forbes (28 August 2013). See also: Amanda Moore, "Tracking Down Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Words on Health Care", Huffington Post (18 August 2013)"

"Set yourself earnestly to see what you are made to do, and then do it with all of the concentrated attention of your mind."

"Segregation is wrong because it is a system of adultery perpetuated by an illicit intercourse between injustice and immorality."

"If a city has a 30% Negro population, then it is logical to assume that Negroes should have at least 30% of the jobs in any particular company, and jobs in all categories rather than only in menial areas. from a 1968 Playboy magazine interview[specific citation needed]"

"The first principle of value that we need to rediscover is this: that all reality hinges on moral foundations. In other words, that this is a moral universe, and that there are moral laws of the universe just as abiding as the physical laws. I'm not so sure we all believe that."

"We believe firmly in the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. I can see no conflict between our devotion to Jesus Christ and our present action. In fact, I can see a necessary relationship. If one is truly devoted to the religion of Jesus he will seek to rid the earth of social evils. The gospel is social as well as personal. Stride Toward Freedom (1958)"

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."

"Let us be practical and ask the question: How do we love our enemies?"

"Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty."

"There are some things that are as basic and as structural in history, and if we don't know these things, we are in danger of destroying ourselves and our world. Discerning the signs of history, will tell us first that evil carries the seed of its own destruction. That is just as true as the rising and setting of the sun."

"Somewhere somebody must have some sense. Men must see that force begets force, hate begets hate, toughness begets toughness. And it is all a descending spiral, ultimately ending in destruction for all and everybody. Somebody must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate and the chain of evil in the universe. And you do that by love."

"Response to an open letter by fellow clergyman criticizing his participation in civil rights demonstrations (16 April 1963) – full text online"

"Delivered at Mount Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church, Chicago, Illinois (27 August 1967)"

"Sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia (4 July 1965)"

"Man is man because he is free to operate within the framework of his destiny. He is free to deliberate, to make decisions, and to choose between alternatives. He is distinguished from animals by his freedom to do evil or to do good and to walk the high road of beauty or tread the low road of ugly degeneracy. The Measures of Man (1959)"

"What I'm saying today is that we must go from this convention and say, "America, you must be born again!" And so, I conclude by saying today that we have a task, and let us go out with a divine dissatisfaction."

"There is such a thing as the freedom of exhaustion. Some people are so worn down by the yoke of oppression that they give up. A few years ago in the slum areas of Atlanta, a Negro guitarist used to sing almost daily: "Been down so long that down don't bother me." This is the type of negative freedom and resignation that often engulfs the life of the oppressed."

"One of the sure signs of maturity is the ability to rise to the point of self criticism."

"I had grown up in the church, and the church meant something very real to me, but it was a kind of inherited religion and I had never felt an experience with God in the way that you must have it if you're going to walk the lonely paths of this life."

"We must develop a world perspective."

"Third we must not seek to defeat or humiliate the enemy but to win his friendship and understanding. At times we are able to humiliate our worst enemy. Inevitably, his weak moments come and we are able to thrust in his side the spear of defeat. But this we must not do. Every word and deed must contribute to an understanding with the enemy and release those vast reservoirs of goodwill which have been blocked by impenetrable walls of hate."

""Keep Moving from this Mountain" – Founders Day Address at the Sisters Chapel, Spelman College (11 April 1960) · (see also the 1965 address on this theme)"

"The time is always right to do what's right. "The Future of Integration", address in Finney Chapel at Oberlin College (22 October 1964), as quoted in "When MLK came to Oberlin" by Cindy Leise, The Chronicle-Telegram (21 January 2008); he also used a slight variant of this "the time is always right to do right" in a later speech "Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution" delivered at Oberlin in 1965."

"Let no man pull you so low as to hate him. Sermon at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church (Montgomory, Alabama 6 Nov 1956)https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/most-durable-power-excerpt-sermon-dexter-avenue-baptist-church-6-november-1956#fn1"

"True greatness comes not by favoritism, but by fitness."

"Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted. Ch. 2 : Transformed nonconformist"

"True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."

"Now most serious thinkers acknowledge that dislocations in the market operation of our economy and the prevalence of discrimination thrust people into idleness and bind them in constant or frequent unemployment against their will. The poor are less often dismissed from our conscience today by being branded as inferior and incompetent. We also know that no matter how dynamically the economy develops and expands, it does not eliminate all poverty."

"A riot is the language of the unheard."

"I think Alfred Nobel would know what I mean when I say that I accept this award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which he holds in trust for its true owners — all those to whom beauty is truth and truth beauty — and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold."

"A Christian movement in an age of revolution cannot allow itself to be limited by geographic boundaries. We must be as concerned about the poor in India as we are about the poor of Indiana."

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

"King often delivered slightly revised versions of his speeches at different venues, and a later variant of this speech, delivered at the Episcopal National Cathedral, Washington D.C. (31 March 1968), though retaining much, contained statements not in the 1965 version."