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Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes - Page 41

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I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction... I believe that even amid today's mortar bursts and whining bullets,

I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction... I believe that even amid today's mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow... I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Peace, War, Believe
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s acceptance speech on the occasion of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, www.nobelprize.org. December 10, 1964.

Religion operates not only on the vertical plane but also on the horizontal. It seeks not only to integrate men with God but to integrate men with men and each man with himself.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Men, Integrating, Planes
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2010). “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story”, p.48, Beacon Press

I often feel like saying, when I hear the question 'People aren't ready,' that it's like telling a person who is trying to swim, 'Don't jump in that water until you learn how to swim.' When actually you will never learn how to swim until you get in the water. And I think people have to have an opportunity to develop themselves and govern themselves.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Opportunity, Thinking, People

I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Destiny, Atlanta, Ideas
"Letter from Birmingham Jail," 16 Apr. 1963

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.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Strength, Strong, Love Is
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings”, p.204, Beacon Press

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.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Inspirational, Criticism, Would Be
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings”, p.85, Beacon Press

There may have been a time when war served as a negative good by preventing the spread and growth of an evil force, but the destructive power of modern weapons eliminates even the possibility that war may serve as a negative good.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
War, Evil, Growth
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “"In a Single Garment of Destiny": A Global Vision of Justice”, p.109, Beacon Press

Hate destroys the very structure of the personality of the hater. [...] when you start hating anybody, it destroys the very center of your creative response to life and the universe; so love everybody.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Hate, Personality, Creative
"Loving Your Enemies". Speech delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama, November 17, 1957.

I had a very depressing response because I realized that these were my own people, these were Negroes throwing eggs at me. I'm concerned about the fact that maybe all of us have contributed to this by not working harder to get rid of the conditions, the poverty, the social isolation, and all of the conditions that cause individuals to respond like this.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Depressing, Eggs, People
Source: www.theatlantic.com

The Negro has no room to make any substantial compromises because his store of advantages is too small. He must press unrelentingly for quality, integrated education or his whole drive for freedom will be undermined by the absence of a most vital and indispensable element - learning.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Liberty, Quality, Elements

As television beamed the image of this extraordinary gathering across the border oceans, everyone who believed in man's capacity to better himself had a moment of inspiration and confidence in the future of the human race.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ocean, Inspiration, Men
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2011). “Why We Can't Wait”, p.93, Beacon Press

It is a sad fact that because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, and our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch-antirevolutionaries.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Comfort, Breaking Silence, Arches
Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence, Delivered 4 April 1967, Riverside Church, New York City

You are resisting, but you've come to see that tactically as well as morally, it is better to be nonviolent.If one would, didn't want to deal with the moral questions, it would just be impractical for the Negro to talk about making his struggle a violent one.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Struggle, Want, Moral
Source: www.theatlantic.com

I decide on the basis of conscience. A genuine leader doesn't reflect consensus, he molds consensus.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Leadership, Mold, Genuine

It's very easy for one talking about violence and hatred for the white man to appeal to [Negro from ghetto]. I have never thought of this, but I think this is quite true, that if, even if you talk to them about nonviolence from a tactical point of view, they can't quite see it because they don't even know they're outnumbered.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ghetto, Men, Thinking
Source: www.theatlantic.com

I feel that when a white child goes to school only with white children, unconsciously that child grows up in many instances devoid of a world perspective. There is an unconscious provincialism, and it can develop into an unconscious superiority complex just as a Negro develops an unconscious inferiority complex.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Children, Growing Up, School
Source: www.theatlantic.com

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.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Order, Justice, Victory
Martin Luther King (Jr.), Alex Ayres (1993). “The Wisdom of Martin Luther King, Jr”, Plume

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.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Courage, Men, Zest
Martin Luther King, Jr. (2012). “A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings”, p.120, Beacon Press

Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's often vocal sanction of things as they are.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Inspirational, Average, Community
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2011). “Why We Can't Wait”, p.67, Beacon Press

We've been in the mountain of war. We've been in the mountain of violence. We've been in the mountain of hatred long enough. It is necessary to move on now, but only by moving out of this mountain can we move to the promised land of justice and brotherhood and the Kingdom of God. It all boils down to the fact that we must never allow ourselves to become satisfied with unattained goals. We must always maintain a kind of divine discontent.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
War, Moving, Land
Sermon at Temple Israel of Hollywood, delivered 26 February 1965

A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law. Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up the state's segregation laws was democratically elected?

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Law, Alabama, Minorities
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2011). “Why We Can't Wait”, p.61, Beacon Press

We come humbly to say to the men in the forefront of our government that the civil rights issue is not an Ephemeral, evanescent domestic issue that can be kicked about by reactionary guardians of the status quo; it is rather an eternal moral issue which may well determine the destiny of our nation in the ideological struggle with communism. The hour is late. The clock of destiny is ticking out. We must act now, before it is too late.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Struggle, Destiny, Men
"The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Volume IV: Symbol of the Movement, January 1957-December 1958". Book by Martin Luther King, Clayborne Carson, Peter Holloran, Ralph Luker, Penny A. Russell (University of California Press), p. 211, 1992.

Mankind's survival is dependent on man's ability to solve the problems of racial injustice, poverty, and war; the solution of these problems is in turn dependent upon man's squaring his moral progress with his scientific progress, and learning the practical art of living in harmony.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Art, War, Men

Another way that you love your enemy is this: When the opportunity presents itself for you to defeat your enemy, that is the time which you must not do it.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Love You, Opportunity, Enemy
"Loving Your Enemies". Speech delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama, November 17, 1957.

Let us therefore continue our triumphal march to the realization of the American dream... for all of us today, the battle is in our hands... The road ahead is not altogether a smooth one. There are no broad highways that lead us easily and inevitably to quick solutions... We are still in for the season of suffering... How long? Not long. Because no lie can live forever... our God is marching on.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dream, Lying, Hands
Speech on the steps of the State Capitol Building, Montgomery, Alabama, March 25, 1965.

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