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 law.

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

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

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.

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.

The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one.

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

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

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.

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

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

The time is always right to do what is right.

A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.

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.

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

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

Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.

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

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.

We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the postive affirmation of peace.

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 first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?'

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.

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.

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.

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.

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

Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.

It is incontestable and deplorable that Negroes have committed crimes; but they are derivative crimes. They are born of the greater crimes of the white society.

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.

That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.

One of the greatest casualties of the war in Vietnam is the Great Society... shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam.

Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.

Pity may represent little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, but true sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one's soul.

Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control.

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.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

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.

The sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.