Martin Luther King Quotes

Enjoy this collection of Martin Luther King quotes. Martin Luther King, Jr was clergyman and civil rights activist who was vehemently opposed to violence, taking his inspiration from Gandhi. He remains an icon of the U.S. civil rights movement and his words of wisdom still inspire us today.

Profile: Martin Luther King, Jr was born Jan 15th, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the son of a Baptist minister and after excelling at college and eventually earning a doctor's degree at Boston University's School of Theology, King became minister of a Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama in 1954.

It was here in Montgomery at the age of 26 that his life was to change forever. The decision of Rosa Parks to take a stand against segregation on buses, by refusing to give up her seat to a white person, sparked a chain of events that resulted in King being elected to organise protests and a boycott of the buses.

His campaign was a success and he continued fighting for civil rights, despite threats to his life and much criticism from within and without. King's famous 'I have a dream speech' was made in 1963 after a quarter of a million people marched on Washington.

By 1968 he was focusing on ending poverty and the Vietnam war but was shot dead on the balcony of his hotel on April 4th.

A Top 10 list of
Martin Luther King Quotes

1:

"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."

- Martin Luther King



2:

"Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence
but also internal violence of spirit.
You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him."

- Martin Luther King



3:

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

- Martin Luther King



4:

"Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method
which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation.
The foundation of such a method is love."

- Martin Luther King



5:

"Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.
This is the interrelated structure of reality."

- Martin Luther King

6:

"He who is devoid of the power to forgive
is devoid of the power to love."

- Martin Luther King



7:

"If the cruelties of slavery could not stop us,
the opposition we face will surely fail.
Because the goal of America is freedom, abused and scorned
tho' we may be, our destiny is tied up with America's destiny."

- Martin Luther King



8:

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love
will have the final word in reality. This is why right,
temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."

- Martin Luther King

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9:

"I have a dream
that my four little children will one day live in a nation
where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin,
but by the content of their character."

- Martin Luther King



10:

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is,
'What are you doing for others?"

- Martin Luther King

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