Quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
We will be greatly misled if we feel that the problem will work itself out. Structures of evil do not crumble by passive waiting. If history teaches anything, it is that evil is recalcitrant and determined, and never voluntarily relinquishes its hold short of an almost fanatical resistance. Evil must be attacked by a counteracting persistence, by the day-to-day assault of the battering rams of justice.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
God is neither Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian , nor Episcopalian [nor Reformed, either]. God transcends our denominations. If you are to be true witnesses for Christ, you must come to know this....
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Rationalization and the incessant search for scapegoats are the psychological cataracts that blind us to our individual and collective sins. But the day has passed for bland euphemisms. He who lives with untruth lives in spiritual slavery.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
He explains how all African Americans involved in our own liberation struggle came to embody the dignity of moral conviction and self-sacrifice. Importantly, he explains here how the way of nonviolence heals the oppressed as well as the oppressor.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
we will make progress if we freely admit that we have no magic.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Yes we have learned to fly the air like birds, we've learned to swim the seas like fish, and yet we have not learned the simple art of walking the earth as brothers and sisters.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
It is not enough for the church to be active in the realm of ideas; it must move out to the arena of social action.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Love yourself, if that means rational, healthy, and moral self-interest. You are commanded to do that. That is the length of life. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. You are commanded to do that. That is the breadth of life. But never forget that there is a first and even greater commandment, Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy mind. This is the height of life. And when you do this you live the complete life.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Why does misery constantly haunt the Negro?
— Martin Luther King, Jr.