Best Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes, Advice And Thoughts On Leadership

 

 

 

Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and activist who turned into the most obvious representative and pioneer in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his death in 1968. Born in Atlanta, King is best known for advancing civil rights through nonviolence and civil defiance, strategies his Christian beliefs and the peaceful activism of Mahatma Gandhi helped inspire.

 

Here are some of the Best Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“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.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Every man lives in two realms: the internal and the external. The internal is that realm of spiritual ends expressed in art, literature, morals, and religion. The external is that complex of devices, techniques, mechanisms, and instrumentalities by means of which we live.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“A lie cannot live.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes

“The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“We are not makers of history. We are made by history.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Nonviolence is an absolute commitment to the way of love. Love is not an emotional bash; it is not empty sentimentalism. It is the active outpouring of one’s whole being into the being of another.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Lightning makes no sound until it strikes.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

“If you can’t fly then run if you can’t run then walk if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Only in the darkness can you see the stars.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“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 verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they’d die for.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.” ~ Martin Luther King Quotes

“We must build dykes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

“Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“No person has the right to rain on your dreams.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“You will change your mind; You will change your looks; You will change your smile, laugh, and ways but no matter what you change, you will always be you.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“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. ” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the positive affirmation of peace.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favour wish that he might have done you a greater one.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“A riot is the language of the unheard.” ~ Martin Luther King Quotes

“Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a moulder of consensus.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” ~ Martin Luther King Quotes

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a constant attitude.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Ten thousand fools proclaim themselves into obscurity, while one wise man forgets himself into immortality.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative. ” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.” ~ Martin Luther King Quotes

 

 

 

50th of 100 Quotes By Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

“That old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.” ~ Martin Luther King Quotes

“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to mankind.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great because greatness is determined by service… You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I came to the conclusion that there is an existential moment in your life when you must decide to speak for yourself; nobody else can speak for you.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The soft-minded man always fears change. He feels security in the status quo, and he has an almost morbid fear of the new. For him, the greatest pain is the pain of a new idea.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

“We cannot walk alone.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetuate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I am not interested in power for power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Property is intended to serve life, and no matter how much we surround it with rights and respect, it has no personal being. It is part of the earth man walks on. It is not man.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

“People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Capitalism does not permit an even flow of economic resources. With this system, a small privileged few are rich beyond conscience, and almost all others are doomed to be poor at some level. That’s the way the system works. And since we know that the system will not change the rules, we are going to have to change the system.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“What is wrong in the world today is that the nations of the world are engaged in a bitter, colossal contest for supremacy.” ~ 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 colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.

“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.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

“History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamour of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the instalment plan.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The more there are riots, the more repressive action will take place, and the more we face the danger of a right-wing takeover and eventually a fascist society.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.” ~ Martin Luther King Quotes

“It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

“Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is, in reality, expressing the highest respect for the law.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The principle of self-defence, even involving weapons and bloodshed, has never been condemned, even by Gandhi.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“We who in engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive.” ~ Martin Luther King Quotes

“Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“At the centre of non-violence stands the principle of love.” ~ Martin Luther King Quotes

“Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. I am not unmindful of the fact that violence often brings about momentary results. Nations have frequently won their independence in battle. But in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“World peace through nonviolent means is neither absurd nor unattainable. All other methods have failed. Thus we must begin anew. Nonviolence is a good starting point. Those of us who believe in this method can be voices of reason, sanity, and understanding amid the voices of violence, hatred, and emotion. We can very well set a mood of peace out of which a system of peace can be built.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

 

 

100th of 100 Martin Luther King, Jr. Best Quotes

 

 

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