Martin Luther King Quotes On Love, Leadership, Motivational, Justice
Inspire yourself with the most powerful and life-changing Martin Luther King Jr. quotes.
Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. He acted as a key person in the American Civil Rights Movement. Being a great activist and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, he is a personality of motivation for millions of people around the world. For this reason, his wordings in the form of quotes have worked as great inspiration for many.
Being a pastor in Alabama after having his doctorate degree, King could make changes in racism and laws related. Similarly, he started spreading the message against racism across the country through his influential speeches. A lot of Martin Luther King’s famous quotes were derived from his very famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.
Most noteworthy, King was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 which made him the youngest one to achieve at that time. The nonviolent resistance he believed in, helped him to fight against racial inequality which eventually brought him the accreditation. Furthermore, his campaigns and nationwide movements made a lot of people look at him as a role model.
Because his messages always invoked the spark in the mind-set of youth he ended up facing a lot of criticisms too. He was shot dead on the balcony of his motel in 1968, by James Earl Ray. He always gets remembered for his work and the changes he brought in. Certainly, his speeches and the wisdom of words he kept for the generations to follow will remain as life references.
A lot of people who still face the bitterness of racism gets motivated by Martin Luther King quotes. His wording can be resembled with the everyday situation of the common man easily and still impacts lives positively.
Martin Luther King jr – The invisible spokesperson for generations
Probably being the most acclaimed leader who fought against racism, King has always been a people’s person. Even today millions remember him and Dr. Martin Luther King’s quotes, in the difficult situations of life. Because he has enacted his life itself to pass the message to the mind-sets of his followers.
Certainly, his messages on love and equality would definitely touch our thought process and would push us to take inputs. Even the United States has declared holidays for the states and its cities as respect towards Martin Luther King.
Above all, the wisdom and his quotes passing that still act as a great relief for all of us to look up at his ideologies.
Famous Martin Luther King Jr Quotes with Images
Forgiveness is not an occasional act. It is a permanent attitude.
If you can’t fly, then run, if you can’t walk run, then walk,
if you can’t walk, then crawl, but by all means, keep moving.
That old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind.
The time is always right to do what is right.
Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.
We must use time creatively,
in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.
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More Famous MLK Quotes: –
Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.
The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
We bust build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.
When people are voiceless, they will have temper tantrums like a child who has not been paid attention to. And riots are massive temper tantrums from neglected and voiceless people. – The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.
We want all of our rights, we want them here, and we want them now.
Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.
Martin Luther King Best Quotes on Love
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Love is the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality.
Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.
We have before us the glorious opportunity to inject a new
the dimension of love into the veins of our civilization.
It is not enough to say we must not wage war.
It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.
He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.
I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.
Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war.
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More Love Quotes by Martin Luther: –
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.
Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
Nonviolence is an absolute commitment to the way of love. Love is not emotional bash; it is not empty sentimentalism. It is the active outpouring of one’s whole being into the being of another.
We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.
Hate is just as injurious to the hater as it is to the hated. Like unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Many of our inner conflicts are rooted in hate. This is why psychiatrists say, “Love or perish.” Hate is too great a burden to bear.
In some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.
I am convinced that love is the most durable power in the world. It is not an expression of impractical idealism, but of practical realism.
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Martin Luther King (MLK) Day Quotes
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed;
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.
This will be the day when we bring into full realization
the American dream – a dream yet unfulfilled.
Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow,
I still have a dream.
We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today.
We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now.
More Day Quotes by MLK: –
I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education, and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.
Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism.
If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.
We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. This may well be mankind’s last chance to choose between chaos and community.
I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.
What is wrong in the world today is that the nations of the world are engaged in a bitter, colossal contest for supremacy.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
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Martin Luther King Quotes on Leadership
A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.
Forgiveness is not an occasional act;
it is a constant attitude.
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.
More Leadership Quotes by MLK: –
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.
Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?
Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.
Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.
People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.
Ten thousand fools proclaim themselves into obscurity, while one wise man forgets himself into immortality.
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.
Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.
Martin Luther King (MLK) Inspirational Quotes
Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great,
because greatness is determined by service.
Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.
Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor;
it must be demanded by the oppressed.
I have a dream that one day little black boys
and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.
What matters is not how long you live, but how you live.
We must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope.
The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people,
but the silence over that by the good people.
We may have all come on different ships,
but we’re in the same boat now.
More Inspirational Quotes by MLK: –
- There comes a time when silence is betrayal.
- Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.
- There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right.
- We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.
- No person has the right to rain on your dreams.
- The time is always right to do what is right.
- So even though we face difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.
- We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society.
- In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
- No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they’d die for.
- Returning violence for violence multiplies violence adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Martin Luther King Education Quotes:-
- Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.
- The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.
- Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
MLK Quotes About Justice
Peace is not simply the absence of conflict,
but the existence of justice for all people.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
True peace is not merely the absence of tension;
it is the presence of justice.
The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.
More Justice Quotes by MLK: –
Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
We may all have come from different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.
We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.
Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.
We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers and sisters.
Short Quotes by Martin Luther Jr. King: –
If I cannot do great things,
I can do small things in a great way.
Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.
Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.
You can kill the dreamer, but you can’t kill the dream.
The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life, is what is important.
Some More Short Quotes: –
- A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.
- I want to be the white man’s brother, not his brother-in-law.
- A right delayed is a right denied.
- We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
- We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
- There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.
Final Words on Martin Luther King quotes:-
Life takes all of us through a different difficult situation and it is quite obvious that we look for support. It can be in any form. Maybe a friend, parents, spouse, mentor, or one who is close to us. At the time we won’t find any of these and the best option is to look at the great personalities like Martin Luther King Jr. Similarly, Martin Luther King Jr quotes can also be considered as a life aid. Because the power of the positivity involved in those words is humongous.
Almost all his quotes can be applied to different aspects and stages in our life. His life was a great chapter for many to look at life positively and to treat everyone equally. Hence, people around the globe still follows his learnings passed on to generations.
I personally console myself with Dr. Martin Luther King’s quotes at times when griefs pop in different stages of the lifespan.
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