Our eternal message of hope is that dawn will come.
I plan to stand by nonviolence, because I have found it to be a philosophy of life that regulates not only my dealings in the struggle for racial justice, but also my dealings with people, and with my own self.
Lukewarm acceptance is more bewildering than outright rejection.
A final victory is an accumulation of many short-term encounters. To lightly dismiss a success because it does not usher in a complete order of justice is to fail to comprehend the process of achieving full victory.
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. We must constantly build dykes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.
Nothing is so much needed as a secure family life for a people seeking to rise out of poverty and backwardness.
I decide on the basis of conscience. A genuine leader doesn’t reflect consensus, he molds consensus.
Money, like any other force such as electricity, is amoral and can be used for either good or evil.
The idea of a superior or inferior race is a myth that has been completely refuted by anthropological evidence.
There is nothing more tragic in all the world than to know right and not to do it.
Whatever your life’s work is, do it well.
The more there are riots, the more repressive actin will take place, and the more we face the danger of a right-wing takeover and eventually a fascist society.
I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive goodwill will proclaim the rule of the land.
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.
Even though I have never had an abrupt conversion experience, religion has been real to me and closely knitted to life. In fact the two cannot be separated; religion for me is life.
One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty.
My parents would always tell me that I should not hate the white man, but that it was my duty as a Christian to love him.
It is quite easy for me to think of a God of love mainly because I grew up in a family where love was central and where lovely relationships were ever present.
I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him.
If I sought to answer all of the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would be engaged in little else in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work.