Quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr.
At the center of nonviolence stands the principle of love.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
You don't have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Even if it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, go on out and sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures; sweep streets like Handel and Beethoven composed music; sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry; sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will have to pause and say, "Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well."
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they'd die for.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir . . . America has defaulted on this promissory note in so far as her citizens of color are concerned.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
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. They are complementary.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. . . . But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up 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.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
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.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
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.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
I want to be the white man's brother, not his brother-in-law.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.