Nelson Mandela sat in a South African prison for 27 years. He was nonviolent. He negotiated his way out of jail. His honor and suffering of 27 years in a South African prison is really ultimately what brought about the freedom of South Africa. That is nonviolence.
When the heart is right, the mind and the body will follow.
Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.
The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.
When you are willing to make sacrifices for a great cause, you will never be alone.
Justice is never advanced in the taking of human life.
Love is such a powerful force. It’s there for everyone to embrace-that kind of unconditional love for all of humankind. That is the kind of love that impels people to go into the community and try to change conditions for others, to take risks for what they believe in.
I’m fulfilled in what I do. I never thought that a lot of money or fine clothes – the finer things of life – would make you happy. My concept of happiness is to be filled in a spiritual sense.
If you give your life to a cause in which you believe, and if it is right and just, and if your life comes to an end as a result of this, then your life could not have been spent in a more redemptive way. I think that is what my husband has done.
Segregation was wrong when it was forced by white people, and I believe it is still wrong when it is requested by black people.
How many men must die before we can really have a free and true and peaceful society? How long will it take?
Women, in general, are not part of the corruption of the past, so they can give a new kind of leadership, a new image for mankind.
Hate is too great a burden to bear...
Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood.
If American women would increase their voting turnout by ten percent, I think we would see an end to all of the budget cuts in programs benefiting women and children.
If a man had nothing that was worth dying for, then he was not fit to live.
Without Coretta Scott King, there would not have been a Martin Luther King, Jr. in the way that we know him.
It’s going to take an act of Congress to deal with poverty and hunger, not only in this country, but throughout the world. We have the resources but we don’t have the will.
To really know someone is to have loved and hated him in turn.
Mama and Daddy King represent the best in manhood and womanhood, the best in a marriage, the kind of people we are trying to become.