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.

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

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

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.

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.

You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'

But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.

We are not makers of history. We are made by history.

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.

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

Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.

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

Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.

If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.

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

We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.

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

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

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.

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.

A lie cannot live.

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.

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.

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.

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.

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.

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.

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.

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.

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

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.

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.

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

Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.

A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.

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.

We must use time creatively.

There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.

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

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.

A right delayed is a right denied.

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.

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.

Seeing is not always believing.

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.

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

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

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.

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.

The time is always right to do what is right.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

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.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.