Coretta Scott King Quotes

It doesn't matter how strong your opinions are. If you don't use your power for positive change, you are, indeed, part of the problem.

The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.

Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.

When the heart is right, the mind and the body will follow.

Freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political convenience. I don't believe you can stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it to others.

Women, if the soul of the nation is to be saved, I believe that you must become its soul.

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 must remind you that starving a child is violence. Suppressing a culture is violence. Neglecting school children is violence. Punishing a mother and her family is violence. Discrimination against a working man is violence. Ghetto housing is violence. Ignoring medical need is violence. Contempt for poverty is violence.

Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.

I am convinced that the women of the world, united without any regard for national or racial dimensions, can become a most powerful force for international peace and brotherhood.

When you are willing to make sacrifices for a great cause, you will never be alone.

We must eliminate the gulf of mistrust and ignorance that keeps us from learning from each other.

We have a lot more work to do in our common struggle against bigotry and discrimination. I say "common struggle" because I believe very strongly that all forms of bigotry and discrimination are equally wrong and should be opposed by right-thinking Americans everywhere. Freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation is surely a fundamental human right in any great democracy, as much as freedom from racial, religious, gender, or ethnic discrimination.

Behind every good man, there's a good woman reminding you I knew you when you didn't have nothing.

Segregation was wrong when it was forced by white people, and I believe it is still wrong when it is requested by black people.

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.

The greatest violence is seeing a child go to bed hungry.

I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice. But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people.

Violence diminishes our humanity.

People need role models. They need to see examples of people in peoples' lives.

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.

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.

All we seek is an America where every person is given the chance to productively contribute to his country and where he can receive a fair and equitable share of the wealth that production creates.

Nonviolence is a method that transforms, first of all, the individual once you understand it and embrace it. It begins with you and, if you can, about transforming individuals so that they love unconditionally.

Justice is never advanced in the taking of human life.