22 Powerful and Inspiring Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.

Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.

Only God is able. It is faith in Him that we must rediscover. With this faith we can transform bleak and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of joy and bring new light into the dark caverns of pessimism.

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

Carve a tunnel of hope through a dark mountain of disappointment.

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

If you can't run then walk If you can't walk then crawl but whatever you do don't give up

Find a voice in a whisper.

Nonviolence is directed against forces of evil rather than against persons who happen to be doing the evil. It is evil that the nonviolent resister seeks to defeat, not the persons victimized by evil.

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 together at the table of brotherhood.

Life at its best is a creative synthesis of opposites in fruitful harmony.

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.

The problem with hatred and violence is that they intensity the fears of the white majority, and leave them less ashamed of their prejudices toward Negroes. ~

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.

You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.

Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.

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

One day we will learn that the heart can never be totally right if the head is totally wrong. Only through the bringing together of head and heart—intelligence and goodness—shall man rise to a fulfillment of his true nature.

And so we shall have to do more than register and more than vote; we shall have to create leaders who embody virtues we can respect, who have moral and ethical principles we can applaud with enthusiasm.

Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.