77 Incredibly Inspiring Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

These Martin Luther King Jr quotes show you the mindset of a man that changed a nation with his powerful speeches and inspiring leadership.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a pivotal advocate for African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15th, 1929, Martin Luther King Jr. experienced racism from an early age. After graduating college with a doctorate degree in theology, he became a pastor in Alabama.

Martin Luther King Jr. was man of vision and he dreamed of a future where people would judge a person by their character rather than colour. He began a series of peaceful protests in the south that would eventually change many laws in relation to the equality of African Americans.

Driven by passion and purpose King gave hundreds of moving speeches across the country, and in 1964 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

On April 4th, 1968, King was shot dead while in Memphis, Tennessee. Although his life ended that day, his legacy continued and ultimately changed the nation.

His inspiring, peaceful leadership in the face of hatred, racism, and bigotry makes him one of the most influential leaders in world history.

I hope you find these powerful Martin Luther King Jr quotes inspiring. Enjoy!

77 Martin Luther King Jr Quotes

1. “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

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

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

4. “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.

5. “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.

6. “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

7. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

8. “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.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

9. “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

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

11. “I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

12. “The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

13. “At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love. – Martin Luther King, Jr.

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

15. “Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

16. “Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

17. “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.

18. “If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

19. “Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

20. “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.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

21. “Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

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

23. “In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

24. “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.

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

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

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

28. “Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

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

30. “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

31. “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.

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

33. “The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be… The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

34. “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.

35. “Only in the darkness can you see the stars.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

36. “Everybody can be great… because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

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

38. “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.

39. “No person has the right to rain on your dreams.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

40. “You will change your mind; You will change your looks; You will change your smile, laugh, and ways but no matter what you change, you will always be you.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

41. “Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

42. “Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a constant attitude.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

43. “If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

44. “I came to the conclusion that there is an existential moment in your life when you must decide to speak for yourself; nobody else can speak for you.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

45. “People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

46. “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

47. “Mankind must put and end to war or war will put an end to mankind.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

48. “Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles; Cowardice is submissive surrender to circumstances. Courage breeds creativity; Cowardice represses fear and is mastered by it. Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience ask the question, is it right? And there comes a time when we must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

49. “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.

50. “Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ Vanity asks the question, ‘Is it popular?’ But, conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’ And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one’s conscience tells one that it is right.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

51. “Keep feeling the need for being first. But I want you to be the first in love. I want you to be the first in moral excellence. I want you to be the first in generosity.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

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

53. “Perhaps the worst sin in life is knowing right and not doing it.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

54. “We must shift the arms race into a ‘peace race’.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

55. “We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

56. “Unconditional love will have the final word in reality.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

57. “Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

58. “A productive and happy life is not something you find; it is something you make.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

59. “The best way to solve any problem is to remove its cause.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

60. “Capitalism is always in danger of inspiring men to be more concerned about making a living than making a life. We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles, rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to humanity-thus capitalism can lead to a practical materialism that is as pernicious as the materialism taught by communism.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

61. “The difference between a dreamer and a visionary is that a dreamer has his eyes closed and a visionary has his eyes open.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

62. “One of the great tragedies of life is that men seldom bridge the gulf between practice and profession, between doing and saying.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

63. “The richer we have become materially, the poorer we become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly in the air like birds and swim in the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

64. “Courageous men never lose the zest for living even though their life situation is zestless; cowardly men, overwhelmed by the uncertainties of life, lose the will to live.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

65. “Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfilment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

66. “Courage faces fear and thereby masters it.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

67. “Our children need our presence, not our presents.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

68. “It’s not burn baby burn, but learn, baby, learn, so that you can earn, baby, earn.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

69. “Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

70. “Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

71. “A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

72. “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.

73. “Whenever you are engaged in work that serves humanity and is for the building of humanity, it has dignity and it has worth.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

74. “Forgiveness does not mean ignoring what has been done or putting a false label on an evil act. It means, rather, that the evil act no longer remains as a barrier to the relationship. Forgiveness is a catalyst creating the atmosphere necessary for a fresh start and a new beginning.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

75. “Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

76. “Commit yourself to the noble struggle for human rights. You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country and a finer world to live in.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

77. “Hate destroys the hater…” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

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