Quotes by Martin Luther King Jr.

About Martin Luther King Jr.:

Martin Luther King, Jr. is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface hidden tension that is already alive

Martin Luther King Jr.

We all came in on different ships, but we're all in the same boat now

Martin Luther King Jr.

It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Through our scientific and technological genius we've made of this world a neighborhood. And now through our moral and ethical commitment we must make of it a brotherhood. We must all learn to live together as brothers—or we will all perish togethe...

Martin Luther King Jr.

The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but...

Martin Luther King Jr.

I am convinced that love is the most durable power in the world. It is not an expression of impractical idealism, but of practical realism. Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, love is an absolute necessity for the survival of ou...

Martin Luther King Jr.

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'He...

Martin Luther King Jr.

If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way

Martin Luther King Jr.

Only God is able. It is faith in Him that we must rediscover. With this faith we can transform bleak and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of joy and bring new light into the dark caverns of pessimism.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service.

Martin Luther King Jr.

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

Martin Luther King Jr.

There comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression.

Martin Luther King Jr.

I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed, without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today – my own government.

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.

Through violence you may murder the hater, but you cannot murder hate.

Martin Luther King Jr.

I'm concerned about a better world. I'm concerned about justice; I'm concerned about brotherhood; I'm concerned about truth. And when one is concerned about that, he can never advocate violence. For through violence you may murder a murderer, but you...

Martin Luther King Jr.

Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race. Even before there were large numbers of Negroes on our shore, the scar of racial hatred had already disfigured colonial societ...

Martin Luther King Jr.

Only in the darkness can you see the stars.

Martin Luther King Jr.

If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.

Martin Luther King Jr.

My call to the ministry was not a miraculous or supernatural something. On the contrary it was an inner urge calling me to serve humanity.

Martin Luther King Jr.

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

Martin Luther King Jr.

Author Bio

  • NameMartin Luther King, Jr.
  • DescriptionAmerican clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
  • AliasesMLK; Martin Luther King; Michael King; Michael King, Jr.
  • BornJanuary 15, 1929
  • DiedApril 4, 1968
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionCleric; Political Activist; Theologian; Orator; Minister; Writer
  • AwardsNobel Peace Prize; Jawaharlal Nehru Award For International Understanding; Spingarn Medal; Presidential Medal Of Freedom; United Nations Prize In The Field Of Human Rights; Gandhi Peace Award; Pacem In Terris Award; Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards