Martin Luther King, Jr.

Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones.

If I can help somebody as I pass along, if I can cheer somebody with a word or song, if I can show somebody he's traveling wrong, then my living will not be in vain.

We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society.

Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness.

There are two types of laws: there are just laws and there are unjust laws... What is the difference between the two?...An unjust law is a man-made code that is out of harmony with the moral law.

Nonviolence is absolute commitment to the way of love. Love is not emotional bash; it is not empty sentimentalism. It is the active outpouring of one's whole being into the being of another.

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.

To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it.

Great people aren't those who are happy at times of convienience and content, but of how they are in times of catastrophy and controversy.

If a person sweeps streets for a living, he should sweep them as Michelangelo painted, as Beethoven composed, as Shakespear wrote.

It's not burn baby burn, but learn, baby, learn, so that you can earn, baby, earn.

In this world is a God whose matchless strength is a fit contrast to the sordid weakness of man.

In this Revolution, no plans have been written for retreat. Those who will not get into step will find that the parade has passed them by.

The failures of the past must not be an excuse for the inaction of the present and the future.

There comes a time when a moral man can't obey a law which his conscience tells him is unjust.

It is precisely because education is the road to equality and citizenship, that it has been made more elusive for Negroes than many other rights. The walling off of Negroes from equal education is part of the historical design to submerge him in second class status. Therefore, as Negroes have struggled to be free they have had to fight for the opportunity for a decent education.

the universe is under the control of a loving purpose, and that in the struggle for righteousness man has cosmic companionship (angels). Behind the harsh appearance of the world there is a benign power.

It is a tragic mix-up when the United States spends 500,000 for every enemy soldier killed, and only 53 annually on the victims of poverty.

I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind's problems. And I'm going to talk about it everywhere I go. I know it isn't popular to talk about it in some circles today. I'm not talking about emotional bosh when I talk about love, I'm talking about a strong, demanding love.

The bombs in Vietnam explode at home; they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America.

I have condemned any organizer of war, regardless of his rank or nationality.