Martin Luther King Jr.
Quotes

Knowing and Showing You Can Make a Difference!

• When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

• History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.

• No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

• We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

• Oh, the worst of all tragedies is not to die young, but to live until I am seventy-five and yet not ever truly to have lived.

• If a man is called to be a street-sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven played music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street-sweeper who did his job well.

• 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. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige and even his life for the welfare of others. In dangerous valleys and hazardous pathways, he will lift some bruised and beaten brother to a higher and more noble life.

• All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

• 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, keep moving.

• Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

• Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

• The old law about "an eye for an eye" leaves everybody blind.

• In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

• 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. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige and even his life for the welfare of others. In dangerous valleys and hazardous pathways, he will lift some bruised and beaten brother to a higher and more noble life.

• Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

• 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.