22 Powerful and Inspiring Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

Will we march only to the music of time, or will we, risking criticism and abuse, march to the soul-saving music of eternity?

Nonviolence is power, but it is the right and good use of power.

No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they'd die for.

A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law. Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up the state's segregation laws was democratically elected?

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.

Every human life is a reflection of divinity, and... every act of injustice mars and defaces the image of God in man.

The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.

Unfortunately, most of the major denominations still practice segregation in local churches, hospitals, schools, and other church institutions. It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o'clock on Sunday morning, the same hour when many are standing to sing: "In Christ There Is No East Nor West."

The conservatives who say, "Let us not move so fast," and the extremists who say, "Let us go out and whip the world," would tell you that they are as far apart as the poles. But there is a striking parallel: They accomplish nothing; for they do not reach the people who have a crying need to be free.

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

Whatever your life's work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.

It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.

Almost always the creative, dedicated minority has made the world better.

I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.

You cannot keep birds from flying over your head. but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair

We talk eloquently about our commitment to the principles of Christianity, and yet our lives are saturated with the practices of paganism. We proclaim our devotion to democracy, but we sadly practice the very opposite of the democratic creed.... This strange dichotomy, this agonizing gulf between the ought and the is, represents the tragic theme of man's earthly pilgrimage.

In the final analysis the weakness of Black Power is its failure to see that the black man needs the white man and the white man needs the black man.

Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.

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 your verb agree to serve.... You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.

We must substitute courage for caution.