Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.

Courage is the power of the mind to overcome fear.

One of the greatest casualties of the war in Vietnam is the Great Society ... shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

Hatred paralyzes life love releases it. Hatred confuses life love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life love illumines it.

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.

A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

But I know somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars.

A man who won?t die for something is not fit to live.

I?ve seen too much hate to want to hate, myself, and every time I see it, I say to myself, hate is too great a burden to bear. Somehow we must be able to stand up against our most bitter opponents and say:?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 will still love you.... But be assured that we?ll wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for ourselves; we will appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.

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

Ten thousand fools proclaim themselves into obscurity, while one wise man forgets himself into immortality.

There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.

A nation that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and consciencious stupidity.

The time is always right to do what is right.

We must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal we seek, but it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means.

All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.

A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on an installment plan.

All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live.

God is not merely interestd in the freedom of brown men, yellow men, red men and black men.He is interested in the freedom of the whole human race.

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 the law.

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

One who condones evil is just as guilty as the one who perpetrates it.

We must combine the toughness of the serpent and the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart.

Our loyalties must transend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation and this means we must develop a world perspective.

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.

When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.

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

The question is no longer between violence and non-violence it is between non-violence and non-existence.

Forgiveness is not an occasional act it is an attitude.

Wisdom born of experience should tell us that war is obsolete. There may have been a time when war served as a negative good by preventing the spread and growth of an evil force... If we assume that life is worth living, if we assume that mankind has the right to survive, then we must find an alternative to war.

If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values -- that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.

Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

We have flown the air like birds and swum the seas like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.

Segregation is the adultery of an illicit intercourse between injustice and immorality.

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

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

When you are right you cannot be too radical when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.

The church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.

I have a dream that one day ... the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

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

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

A man can't ride your back unless it's bent.

If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed 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 streetsweeper who did his job well.

One who condones evils is just as guilty as the one who perpetrates it.

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.