Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Christian minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the Civil Rights Movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. Here are 36 Inspirational Martin Luther King Quotes.
Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes
1. “Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. ”
2. “Lightning makes no sound until it strikes.” -Martin Luther King Jr.
3. “There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth.”
4. “We are not makers of history. We are made by history.”
5. “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.”
6. “A lie cannot live.”
7. “It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.”
8. “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.”
9. “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. Quotes
10. “There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.”
11. “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.”
12. “Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”
13. “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.”
14. “We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”
15. “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.”
16. “All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”
17. “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.”
18. “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.” -Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes
19. “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.”
20. “The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important.” -Martin Luther King Jr.
21. “The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows”
Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes on Love
22. “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.” -Martin Luther King Jr.
23. “Only in the darkness can you see the stars.” -Martin Luther King Jr.
24. “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.”
25. “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.”
26. “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.”
27. “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. Quotes
28. “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.”
29. “Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.”
30. “He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.”
31. “Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”
32. “Nonviolence is absolute commitment to the way of love. Love is not emotional bash; it is not empty sentimentalism. It is the active outpouring of one’s whole being into the being of another.”
33. “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” -Martin Luther King Jr.
34. “Seeing is not always believing.”
35. “I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”
36. “If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive. ”