22 Powerful and Inspiring Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

When religion becomes so involved in a future good "over yonder" that it forgets the present evils over here it is as dry as dust religion and needs to be condemned.

At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.

An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.

Nonviolent resistance makes it possible for the Negro to remain in the South and struggle for his rights. The Negro's problem will not be solved by running away.

The difference between a dreamer and a visionary is that a dreamer has his eyes closed and a visionary has his eyes open

Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.

Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

The worst of all tragedies is not to die young, but to live seventy-five and yet not ever truly to have lived.

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.

The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued that self-defeating path of hate. Love is the key to the solution of the problems of the world.

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I still have a dream today that one day war will come to an end, that men will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, that nations will no longer rise up against nations, neither will they study war any more.

Violence brings only temporary victories; violence, by creating many more social problems than it solves, never brings permanent peace.

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.

When Negroes looked for the second phase, the realization of equality, they found that many of their white allies had quietly disappeared.... To stay murder is not the same thing as to ordain brotherhood.

Christ furnished the spirit and motivation while Gandhi furnished the method.

Everyone has the power for greatness, not for fame but greatness, because greatness is determined by service.