65 Inspiring Martin Luther King Jr Quotes

Martin Luther King Jr was a Baptist minister and social activities who oversaw the American civil rights movement from the middle of the 1950s until his murder in 1968. The success of that movement in abolishing the legal segregation of African Americans in the South and other regions of the United States was largely due to his leadership. He was a great leader who inspired many by his speeches.

65 Martin Luther King Jr Quotes on Life and Justice

He led targeted, peaceful opposition against Jim Crow laws and other kinds of discrimination in the US, inspired by his Christian beliefs and Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolent advocacy. In 1964, he received the Nobel Peace Prize.

15 Quotes by Martin Luther King Jr

1.”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.” — Martin Luther King Jr

2. “We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always right to do right.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

3. “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” — Martin Luther King Jr.”

4. “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” — Martin Luther King Jr

5. “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.” — Martin Luther King Jr

6. “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” — Martin Luther King Jr

7. “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.” — Martin Luther King Jr

8. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” — Martin Luther King Jr

9. “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.” — Martin Luther King Jr

10. “There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.” — Martin Luther King Jr

11. “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.” — Martin Luther King Jr

12. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only LIGHT can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, Only Love can do that.” — Martin Luther King Jr

13. “Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”— Martin Luther King Jr

14. “That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.” — Martin Luther King Jr

15. “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

15 Powerful Martin Luther King Jr Quotes

16. “A lie cannot live.” — Martin Luther King Jr

17. “A right delayed is a right denied.” — Martin Luther King Jr

18. “Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.” — Martin Luther King Jr

19. “Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.” — Martin Luther King Jr

20. “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” — Martin Luther King Jr

21. “The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.” — Martin Luther King Jr

22. “If I cannot do great things, I can do small things greatly.” — Martin Luther King

23. “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” — Martin Luther King Jr

24. “You know, a lot of people don’t love themselves. And they go through life with deep and haunting emotional conflicts. So the length of life means that you must love yourself. And you know what loving yourself also means? It means that you’ve got to accept yourself.” — Martin Luther King Jr

25. “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

26. “Forgiveness is not an occasional act. It is a permanent attitude.” — Martin Luther King Jr

27. “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.” — Martin Luther King Jr

28. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”- Martin Luther King

29.  “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.”— Martin Luther King Jr

30. “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?'” — Martin Luther King Jr

20 Quotes by Martin Luther King Jr

31. “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.” — Martin Luther King Jr

32. “You can kill the dreamer, but you can’t kill the dream.” — Martin Luther King Jr

33. “I want to be the white man’s brother, not his brother-in-law.”— Martin Luther King Jr

34. “The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important.” — Martin Luther King Jr

35. “No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they’d die for.” — Martin Luther King Jr

36. “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” — Martin Luther King Jr

37. “The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.” — Martin Luther King Jr

38. “Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

39. “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.” — Martin Luther King Jr

40. “Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.”— Martin Luther King Jr

41. “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.” — Martin Luther King Jr

42. “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.”— Martin Luther King Jr

43. “We are not makers of history. We are made by history.” — Martin Luther King Jr

44. “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

45. “We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.” — Martin Luther King Jr

46. “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” — Martin Luther King Jr

47. “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.” — Martin Luther King Jr

48. “There’s nothing more dangerous in the world than honest ignorance and stupidity.” — Martin Luther King Jr

49. “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.”— Martin Luther King Jr

50. “True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.” — Martin Luther King Jr

15 Martin Luther King Jr Quotes

51. “Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.” — Martin Luther King Jr

52. “Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.”— Martin Luther King, Jr.

53. “There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth.” –Martin Luther King Jr.

54. “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.” – Martin Luther King Jr

55. “Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”– Martin Luther King Jr

56. “That old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.”– Martin Luther King Jr

57. “Hate is just as injurious to the hater as it is to the hated. Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Many of our inner conflicts are rooted in hate. This is why psychiatrists say, “Love or perish.” Hate is too great a burden to bear.”– Martin Luther King Jr

58. “Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.”– Martin Luther King Jr

59. “The time is always right to do what is right.” – Martin Luther King Jr

60. “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.” – Martin Luther King Jr

61. “Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”– Martin Luther King Jr

62. “In some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.”– Martin Luther King Jr

63. “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.”– Martin Luther King Jr

64. “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.”– Martin Luther King Jr

65. “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” – Martin Luther King Jr

To Conclude

These words of wisdom from Martin Luther King, Jr. on bravery, harmony, love, and racial equality represent only a small portion of his legacy. Even now, as the fight for equality continues, we look to Dr. King for guidance.

Let us know which quote inspired you.