Martin Luther King Jr., also known as MLK, was an American clergyman and social activist who became a leader in the African-American civil rights movement. He is best known for his role in advancing civil rights using nonviolent means to oppose racial segregation and discrimination.
King was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. His father was a Baptist minister, and his mother a teacher. The family moved to Birmingham three years later so that his father could take up a pastorate at the local church. In Birmingham, King attended segregated public schools with black children living nearby. On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr., the giant of the civil rights movement, was assassinated in Memphis.
Here are some of the 93 powerful quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. that you must read today
“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.”
“The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.”
“Seeing is not always believing.”
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”
“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.”
“One day we will learn that the heart can never be totally right when the head is totally wrong.”
“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.”
“There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.”
“It does not matter how long you live, but how well you do it.”
“Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.”
“A right delayed is a right denied.”
“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.”
“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.”
“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”
“The time is always right to do what is right.”
“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.”
“We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”
“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.”
“Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.”
“That old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do what is right.”
“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.”
“For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory.”
“Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.”
“What matters is not how long you live…but how you live.”
“In some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.”
“We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.”
“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.”
“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability but comes through continuous struggle.”
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
“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.”
“Only in the darkness can you see the stars.”
“There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth.”
“Forgiveness is not an occasional act. It is a permanent attitude.”
“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.”
“There is no gain without struggle.”
“No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they’d die for.”
“Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.”
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?”
“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
“Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.”
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
“We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now because I’ve been to the mountaintop… 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.”
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
“The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.”
“You can kill the dreamer, but you can’t kill the dream.”
“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.”
“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.”
“Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.”
“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.”
“Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a constant attitude.”
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
“A lie cannot live.”
“Intelligence plus character: that is the goal of a true education.”
“True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.”
“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.”
“Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”
“Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.”
“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.”
“The time is always right to do the right thing.”
“Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.”
“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.”
“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.”
“We must substitute courage for caution.”
“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.”
“We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will. And we shall continue to love you.”
“We are not makers of history. We are made by history.”
“Hate destroys the hater…”
“Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. If you can’t be a highway, just be a trail. If you can’t be a sun, be a star. For it isn’t by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.”
“We must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools.”
“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.”
“I want to be the white man’s brother, not his brother in law.”
“No person has the right to rain on your dreams.”
“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”
“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
“We bust build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.”
“Courage is the power of the mind to overcome fear.”
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
“If you can’t fly, then run, if you can’t walk run, then walk, if you can’t walk, then crawl, but by all means keep moving.”
“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.”
“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”
“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”
“We must use time creatively.”
“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.”
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
“If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.”
“The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important.”
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.”
