Background Image

...

I Have A Dream That One Day, Down In Alabama, With Its Vicious Racists, With Its Governor Having His Lips Dripping With The Words Of "interposition" And "nullification" - One Day Right There In Alabama Little Black Boys And Black Girls Will Be Able To Join Hands With Little White Boys And White Girls As Sisters And Brothers.

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

I Have A Dream

Martin Luther King, Jr.

...

I Have A Dream That One Day, Down In Alabama, With Its Vicious Racists, With Its Governor Having His Lips Dripping With The Words Of "interposition" And "nullification" - One Day Right There In Alabama Little Black Boys And Black Girls Will Be Able To Join Hands With Little White Boys And White Girls As Sisters And Brothers.

Views: 8

Topic

More From Martin Luther King, Jr.

A Just Law Is A Man-made Code That Squares With The Moral Law, Or The Law Of God. An Unjust Law Is A Code That Is Out Of Harmony With The Moral Law.

To Dislocate The Functioning Of A City Without Destroying It Can Be More Effective Than A Riot Because It Can Be Longer-lasting, Costly To The Society But Not Wantonly Destructive, Moreover, It Is More Difficult For Government To Quell It By Superior Force.

There Comes A Time When The Cup Of Endurance Runs Over, And Men Are No Longer Willing To Be Plunged Into The Abyss Of Despair.

White Man And Black Man, Jew And Gentile, Protestant And Catholic, Will Be Able To Hold Hands And Sing In The Words Of The Ancient Negro Spiritual, "free At Last, Free At Last. Thank God Almighty! We Are Free At Last!"

Lukewarm Acceptance Is More Bewildering Than Outright Rejection.

Vanity Asks, Is It Popular? Politics Ask, Will It Work? But Conscience And Morality Ask, Is It Right?

Cowardice Asks The Question, Is It Safe?

No One Is Free Until We Are All Free.

Violence Is Immoral Because It Thrives On Hatred Rather Than Love. It Destroys Community And Makes Brotherhood Impossible. It Leaves Society In Monologue Rather Than Dialogue. Violence Ends By Defeating Itself. It Creates Bitterness In The Survivors And Brutality In The Destroyers.

No Man (sic) Has Learned To Live Until He Can Rise Above The Narrow Confines Of His Individualistic Concerns To The Broader Concerns Of All Humanity. Length Without Breadth Is Like A Self-contained Tributary Having No Outward Flow To The Ocean. Stagnant, Still And Stale, It Lacks Both Life And Freshness. In Order To Live Creatively And Meaningfully, Our Self-concern Must Be Wedded To Other Concerns.

Love Is The Supreme Unifying Principle Of Life.

One Day The South Will Know That When These Disinherited Children Of God Sat Down At Lunch Counters, They Were In Reality Standing Up For What Is Best In The American Dream And For The Most Sacred Values In Our Judaeo-christian Heritage, Thereby Bringing Our Nation Back To Those Great Wells Of Democracy Which Were Dug Deep By The Founding Fathers In Their Formulation Of The Constitution And The Declaration Of Independence.

I Decide On The Basis Of Conscience. A Genuine Leader Doesn't Reflect Consensus, He Molds Consensus.

Even In The Inevitable Moments When All Seems Hopeless, Men Know That Without Hope They Cannot Really Live, And In Agonizing Desperation They Cry For The Bread Of Hope.

But Life At Its Best Is A Creative Synthesis Of Opposites In Fruitful Harmony.

Justice Denied Anywhere Diminishes Justice Everywhere.

The Negro Is The Child Of Two Cultures - Africa And America. The Problem Is That In The Search For Wholeness All Too Many Negroes Seek To Embrace Only One Side Of Their Natures.

We Must Rapidly Begin The Shift From A "thing-oriented" Society To A "person-oriented" Society. When Machines And Computers, Profit Motives And Property Rights Are Considered More Important Than People, The Giant Triplets Of Racism, Materialism, And Militarism Are Incapable Of Being Conquered.

... The Right To Defend One's Home And One's Person When Attacked Has Been Guaranteed Through The Ages By Common Law.

Before You Finish Eating Breakfast In The Morning, You've Depended On More Than Half Of The World.

Our Age Is One Of Guided Missiles And Unguided Men.

Everyone Has The Power For Greatness, Not For Fame But Greatness, Because Greatness Is Determined By Service.

Courage Is An Inner Resolution To Go Forward Despite Obstacles; Cowardice Is Submissive Surrender To Circumstances.

And Violence Is Impractical, Because The Old Eye For An Eye Philosophy Ends Up Leaving Everybody Blind .. It Is Immoral Because It Is A Descending Spiral Ending In Destruction For Everybody. Means And Ends Are Inseparable. The Means Represent The Ideal In The Making; In The Long Run Of History Destructive Means Cannot Bring About Constructive Ends.

The Words 'i Will Forgive You, But I'll Never Forget What You've Done' Never Explain The Real Nature Of Forgiveness.

Free At Last, Free At Last, Thank God Almighty We Are Free At Last.

Hatred Paralyzes Life; Love Releases It.

So I'm Happy Tonight. I'm Not Worried About Anything. I'm Not Fearing Any Man. Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory Of The Coming Of The Lord!

Faith Is Taking The First Step Even When You Don't See The Whole Staircase.

We Know Nothing About Africa, Although Our Roots Are There In Terms Of Our Forbearers. But I Mean As Far As The Average Negro Today, He Knows Nothing About Africa. And I Think He's Got To Face The Fact That He Is An American, His Culture Is Basically American, And One Becomes Adjusted To This When He Realizes What, What He Is.

All Progress Is Precarious, And The Solution Of One Problem Brings Us Face To Face With Another Problem.

A Nation Or Civilization That Continues To Produce Soft-minded Men Purchases Its Own Spiritual Death On The Installment Plan.

Some Things Are Right, Whether Nobody Sees You Doing Them Or Not.

In His Essay 'self-reliance' Emerson Wrote, 'whoso Would Be A Man Must Be A Nonconformist.' The Apostle Paul Reminds Us That Whoso Would Be A Christian Must Also Be A A Nonconformist. Any Christian Who Blindly Accepts The Opinions Of The Majority And In Fear And Timidity Follows A Path Of Expediency And Social Approval Is A Mental And Spiritual Slave.

It Is My Hope That As The Negro Plunges Deeper Into The Quest For Freedom And Justice He Will Plunge Even Deeper Into The Philosophy Of Non-violence.

But Alas! Science Cannot Now Rescue Us, For Even The Scientist Is Lost In The Terrible Midnight Of Our Age. Indeed, Science Gave Us The Very Instruments That Threaten To Bring Universal Suicide.

Nonviolence Is 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 Cannot Be Truly Christian People So Long As We Flaunt The Central Teachings Of Jesus: Brotherly Love And The Golden Rule.

Our Generation Will Not Have Regretted Both Perverse Crimes, And The Eerie Silence Of The Kind

To Put It In The Terms Of St. Thomas Aquinas: An Unjust Law Is A Human Law That Is Not Rooted In Eternal Law And Natural Law.

Returning Violence For Violence Multiplies Violence, Adding Deeper Darkness To A Night Already Devoid Of Stars.

Voting Is The Foundation Stone For Political Action.

Resistance And Nonviolence Are Not In Themselves Good. There Is Another Element That Must Be Present In Our Struggle That Then Makes Our Resistance And Nonviolence Truly Meaningful. That Element Is Reconciliation. Our Ultimate End Must Be The Creation Of The Beloved Community.

Beloved Community

The Greatest Purveyor Of Violence In The World : My Own Government, I Can Not Be Silent.

The Poor In Our Countries Have Been Shut Out Of Our Minds And Driven From The Mainstream Of Our Societies, Because We Have Allowed Them To Become Invisible.

Riots Are The Voices Of The Unheard.

I Said To My Children, 'i'm Going To Work And Do Everything That I Can Do To See That You Get A Good Education. I Don't Ever Want You To Forget That There Are Millions Of God's Children Who Will Not And Cannot Get A Good Education, And I Don't Want You Feeling That You Are Better Than They Are. For You Will Never Be What You Ought To Be Until They Are What They Ought To Be.

We Must Follow Nonviolence And Love.

Let Us Be Those Creative Dissenters Who Will Call Our Beloved Nation To A Higher Destiny. To A New Plateau Of Compassion, To A More Noble Expression Of Humanness.

Is Your Heart Right? If Your Heart Isn't Right, Fix It Up Today.

Life's Piano Can Only Produce Melodies Of Brotherhood (and Sisterhood) When It Is Recognized That The Black Keys Are As Basic, Necessary And Beautiful As The White Keys.

I Have A Dream That One Day On The Red Hills Of Georgia, Sons Of Former Slaves And Sons Of Former Slave-owners Will Be Able To Sit Down Together At The Table Of Brotherhood. I Have A Dream That One Day, Even The State Of Mississippi, A State Sweltering With The Heat Of Injustice, Sweltering With The Heat Of Oppression, Will Be Transformed Into A Oasis Of Freedom And Justice. I Have A Dream 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 Content Of Their Character. I Have A Dream Today!

The Quality, Not The Longevity, Of One's Life Is What Is Important.

I Cannot Sit Idly By In Atlanta And Not Be Concerned About What Happens In Birmingham.

Injustice Anywhere

We Know Of No More Crucial Civil Rights Issue Facing Congress Today Than The Need To Increase The Federal Minimum Wage And Extend Its Coverage.

As Long As The Mind Is Enslaved, The Body Can Never Be Free.

It Is Not Only Poverty That Torments The Negro; It Is The Fact Of Poverty Amid Plenty. It Is A Misery Generated By The Gulf Between The Affluence He Sees In The Mass Media And The Deprivation He Experiences In His Everyday Life.

I Would Rather Be A Man Of Conviction Than A Man Of Conformity

But Now I Must Affirm That It Is Just As Wrong, Or Perhaps Even More So, To Use Moral Means To Preserve Immoral Ends.

To Have Serpentlike Qualities Devoid Of Dovelike Qualities Is To Be Passionless, Mean, And Selfish.

Friends Are Forever Boys Are Whatever.

We Must Develop A Federal Program Of Public Works, Retraining, And Jobs For All - So That None, White Or Black, Will Have Cause To Feel Threatened . . . There Is Nothing Except Shortsightedness To Prevent Us From Guaranteeing An Annual Minimum And Livable Income For Every American Family.

We Can Walk Through The Darkest Night With The Radiant Conviction That All Things Work Together For The Good.

Working Together

The Unemployed, Poverty-stricken White Man Must Be Made To Realize That He Is In The Very Same Boat With The Negro. Together, They Could Exert Massive Pressure On The Government To Get Jobs For All. Together, They Could Form A Grand Alliance. Together, They Could Merge All People For The Good Of All.

Whatever We Do, We Must Keep God In The Forefront. Let Us Be Christian In All Of Our Actions. But I Want To Tell You This Evening That It Is Not Enough For Us To Talk About Love, Love Is One Of The Pivotal Points Of The Christian Face, Faith. There Is Another Side Called Justice. And Justice Is Really Love In Calculation. Justice Is Love Correcting That Which Revolts Against Love.

As A Young Man With Most Of My Life Ahead Of Me, I Decided Early To Give My Life To Something Eternal And Absolute. Not To These Little Gods That Are Here Today And Gone Tomorrow. But To God Who Is The Same Yesterday, Today, And Forever.

All Men Are Interdependent. Every Nation Is An Heir Of A Vast Treasury Of Ideas And Labor To Which Both The Living And The Dead Of All Nations Have Contributed. Whether We Realize It Or Not, Each Of Us Lives Eternally 'in The Red.' We Are Everlasting Debtors To Known And Unknown Men And Women.

The Strong Man Is The Man Who Can Stand Up For His Rights And Not Hit Back.

In Spite Of Its Glowing Talk About The Welfare Of The Masses, Communism's Methods And Philosophy Strip Man Of His Dignity And Worth, Leaving Him As Little More Than A Depersonalized Cog In The Ever-turning Wheel Of The State.

There Is A Magnificent New Militancy Within The Negro Community All Across This Nation. And I Welcome This As A Marvelous Development. The Negro Of America Is Saying He's Determined To Be Free And He Is Militant Enough To Stand Up.

God Made The World From Nothing, And If We Can Be Nothing, Then God Can Make Something Of Us.

Almost Always, The Creative Dedicated Minority Has Made The World Better.

If We Are To Have Peace On Earth, Our Loyalties Must Become Ecumenical Rather Than Sectional. Our Loyalties Must Transcend Our Race, Our Tribe, Our Class, And Our Nation; And This Means We Must Develop A World Perspective.

A True Revolution Of Values Will Soon Cause Us To Question The Fairness And Justice Of Many Of Our Present Policies.

Breaking Silence

A Right Delayed Is A Right Denied.

Man Is Man Because He Is Free To Operate Within The Framework Of His Destiny. He Is Free To Deliberate, To Make Decisions, And To Choose Between Alternatives.

Evil Must Be Attacked By. . . The Day To Day Assault Of The Battering Rams Of Justice.

This Hour In History Needs A Dedicated Circle Of Transformed Nonconformists. Our Planet Teeters On The Brink Of Annihilation; Dangerous Passions Of Pride, Hatred, And Selfishness Are Enthroned In Our Lives; And Men Do Reverence Before False Gods Of Nationalism And Materialism. The Saving Of Our World From Pending Doom Will Come, Not Through The Complacent Adjustment Of The Conforming Majority, But Through The Creative Maladjustment Of A Nonconforming Minority.

It Is Appalling That The Most Segregated Hour Of Christian America Is Eleven O'clock On Sunday Morning.

I'm Very Glad Christ Tells Us To Love Our Neighbor And Not To Like Our Neighbor Because It's Hard To Like Someone Threatening Your Children And Throwing Fire Bombs Through Your Window, But He Asks Us To Love Them And That I Can Do

War Is The Greatest Plague That Can Afflict Mankind... Any Scourge Is Preferable To It.

A Man Who Hasn't Found Anything He'd Die For Doesn't Deserve To Live.

History Will Have To Record That The Greatest Tragedy Of This Period Of Social Transition Was Not The Strident Clamor Of The Bad People, But The Appalling Silence Of The Good People.

Bad Relationship

By...our Readiness To Allow Arms To Be Purchased At Will And Fired At Whim; By Allowing Our Movie And Television Screens To Teach Our Children That The Hero Is One Who Masters The Art Of Shooting And The Technique Of Killing...we Have Created An Atmosphere In Which Violence And Hatred Have Become Popular Pastimes.

Individuals May See The Moral Light And Voluntarily Give Up Their Unjust Posture; But, As Reinhold Niebuhr Has Reminded Us, Groups Are More Immoral Than Individuals.

To Be Negro In America Is To Hope Against Hope.

We Live In A World Of Guided Missiles And Misguided Men.

Racial Understanding Is Not Something We Find, But Something That We Must Create. Through Education, We Seek To Change Attitudes.

I Am Not Unmindful That Some Of You Have Come Here Out Of Great Trials And Tribulations. Some Of You Have Come Fresh From Narrow Cells. Some Of You Have Come From Areas Where Your Quest For Freedom Left You Battered By The Storms Of Persecution And Staggered By The Winds Of Police Brutality. You Have Been The Veterans Of Creative Suffering. Continue To Work With The Faith That Unearned Suffering Is Redemptive.

I Never Intend To Adjust Myself To The Madness Of Militarism.

The Richer We Have Become Materially, The Poorer We Become Morally And Spiritually. We Have Learned To Fly In The Air Like Birds And Swim In The Sea Like Fish, But We Have Not Learned The Simple Art Of Living Together As Brothers.

Not Everybody Can Be Famous But Everybody Can Be Great, Because Greatness Is Determined By Service.

We Must Combine The Toughness Of The Serpent With The Softness Of The Dove, A Tough Mind And A Tender Heart.

Education Without Social Action Is A One-sided Value Because It Has No True Power Potential.

Difficult And Painful As It Is, We Must Walk On In The Days Ahead With An Audacious Faith In The Future.

I Won't Have Any Money To Leave Behind. I Won't Have The Fine And Luxurious Things Of Life To Leave Behind. But I Just Want To Leave A Committed Life Behind.

We Have Also Come To This Hallowed Spot To Remind America Of The Fierce Urgency Of Now. This Is No Time To Engage In The Luxury Of Cooling Off Or To Take The Tranquilizing Drug Of Gradualism. Now Is The Time To Make Real The Promises Of Democracy

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.

All Men Are Caught In An Inescapable Network Of Mutuality.

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.

It Is Better To Be The Recipient Of Violence Than The Inflicter Of It, Since The Latter Only Multiplies The Existence Of Violence And Bitterness In The Universe, While The Former May Develop A Sense Of Shame In The Opponent, And Thereby Bring About A Transformation And Change Of Heart.

Change Does Not Roll In On The Wheels Of Inevitability, But Comes Through Continuous Struggle.

We Are Now Faced With The Fact That Tomorrow Is Today. We Are Confronted With The Fierce Urgency Of Now. In This Unfolding Conundrum Of Life And History, There "is" Such A Thing As Being Too Late. This Is No Time For Apathy Or Complacency. This Is A Time For Vigorous And Postive Action.

My Mommy Always Said There Were No Monsters - No Real Ones - But There Are.

The Idea Of A Superior Or Inferior Race Is A Myth That Has Been Completely Refuted By Anthropological Evidence.

Make Your Way To Death Row And Speak With The Tragic Victims Of Criminality. As They Prepare To Make Their Pathetic Walk To The Electric Chair, Their Hopeless Cry Is That Society Will Not Forgive. Capital Punishment Is Society's Final Assertion That It Will Not Forgive.

One Of The Great Liabilities Of History Is That All Too Many People Fail To Remain Awake Through Great Periods Of Social Change.

Social Activism

If I Knew That The World Ends Tomorrow, I, Even Today, Plant A Tree

There Is Nothing New About Poverty. What Is New, However, Is That We Have The Resources To Get Rid Of It.

[e]very Human Life Is A Reflection Of Divinity, And... Every Act Of Injustice Mars And Defaces The Image Of God In Man.

Now Let Us Begin. Now Let Us Rededicate Ourselves To The Long And Bitter, But Beautiful, Struggle For A New World. This Is The Calling Of The Sons Of God, And Our Brothers Wait Eagerly For Our Response. Shall We Say The Odds Are Too Great? Shall We Tell Them The Struggle Is Too Hard?

Your Self-image Should Not Come From The Job You Do But From How Well You Do Your Job.

Like An Unchecked Cancer, Hate Corrodes The Personality And Eats Away Its Vital Unity. Hate Destroys A Man's Sense Of Values And His Objectivity. It Causes Him To Describe The Beautiful As Ugly And The Ugly As Beautiful, And To Confuse The True With The False And The False With The True.

Agape Is Disinterested Love. . . . Agape Does Not Begin By Discriminating Between Worthy And Unworthy People, Or Any Qualities People Possess. It Begins By Loving Others For Their Sakes. . . . Therefore, Agape Makes No Distinction Between Friend And Enemy; It Is Directed Toward Both.

But I Say To You, My Friends, There Are Certain Things In Our Nation And In The World Which I Am Proud To Be Maladjusted And Which I Hope All Men Of Good-will Will Be Maladjusted Until The Good Societies Realize.

We Should Never Forget That Everything Adolph Hitler Did In Germany Was "legal" And Everything The Hungarian Freedom Fighers Did In Hungary Was "illegal." It Was "illegal" To Aid And Comfort A Jew In Hitler's Germany.

I Am Not Afraid Of The Word Tension.

Creative Tension

I'm Grateful To God That, Through The Negro Church, The Dimension Of Nonviolence Entered Our Struggle.

There Is Little Hope For Us Until We Become Tough-minded Enough To Break Loose From The Shackles Of Prejudice, Half-truths, And Down-right Ignorance.

Through Violence, You May Murder The Hater, But You Do Not Murder The Hate.

There Are Always Those Who Say Legislation Can't Solve The Problem. There Is A Half-truth Involved Here. It Is True That Legislation Cannot Solve The Whole Problem. It Can Solve Some Of The Problem. It May Be True That Morality Can't Be Legislated, But Behavior Can Be Regulated.

If America Does Not Use Her Vast Resources Of Wealth To End Poverty And Make It Possible For All Of God's Children To Have The Basic Necessities Of Life, She Too Will Go To Hell.

The Best Way To Solve Any Problem Is To Remove Its Cause.

The Time Has Come For An All-out War Against Poverty. The Rich Nations Must Use Their Vast Resources Of Wealth To Develop The Underdeveloped, School The Unschooled, And Feed The Unfed. Ultimately A Great Nation Is A Compassionate Nation. No Individual Or Nation Can Be Great If It Does Not Have A Concern For "the Least Of These".

There Is Some Good In The Worst Of Us, And Some Evil In The Best Of Us.

The Self Cannot Be Self Without Other Selves.

I Guess One Of The Great Agonies Of Life Is That We Are Constantly Trying To Finish That Which Is Unfinishable

A Good Many Observers Have Remarked That If Equality Could Come At Once, The Negro Would Not Be Ready For It. I Submit That The White American Is Even More Unprepared.

Violence Never Brings Permanent Peace. It Solves No Social Problem: It Merely Creates New And More Complicated Ones.

Violence Ends Up Defeating Itself. It Creates Bitterness In The Survivors And Brutality In The Destroyers.

Have We Not Come To Such An Impasse In The Modern World That We Must Love Our Enemies - Or Else? The Chain Reaction Of Evil - Hate Begetting Hate, Wars Producing More Wars - Must Be Broken, Or Else We Shall Be Plunged Into The Dark Abyss Of Annihilation.

It Is Cheerful To God When You Rejoice Or Laugh From The Bottom Of Your Heart.

We Will Never Have Peace In The World Until Men Everywhere Recognize That Ends Are Not Cut Off From Means, Because The Means Represent The Ideal In The Making, And The End In Process, And Ultimately You Can't Reach Good Ends Through Evil Means, Because The Means Represent The Seed And The End Represents The Tree.

There Is No Deficit In Human Resources; The Deficit Is In Human Will.

The Strong Man Holds In A Living Blend Strongly Marked Opposites.

You're As Good As Anybody.

I Imagine You Already Know That I Am Much More Socialistic In My Economic Theory Than Capitalistic. And Yet I Am Not So Opposed To Capitalism That I Have Failed To See Its Relative Merits. It Started Out With A Noble And High Motive, To Block The Trade Monopolies Of Nobles, But Like Most Human Systems It Falls Victim To The Very Thing It Was Revolting Against. So Today Capitalism Has Outlived Its Usefulness. It Has Brought About A System That Takes Necessities From The Masses To Give Luxuries To The Classes.

We Need To Recapture The Gospel Glow Of The Early Christians Who Were Nonconformists In The Truest Sense Of The Word . . . Their Powerful Gospel Put An End To Such Barbaric Evils As Infanticide And Bloody Gladiatorial Contests. Finally, They Captured The Roman Empire For Jesus Christ.

He Who Is Devoid Of The Power To Forgive Is Devoid Of The Power To Love.

President Lyndon Johnson's High Spirits Were Marked As He Circulated Among The Many Guests Whom He Had Invited To Witness An Event He Confidently Felt To Be Historic, The Signing Of The 1965 Voting Rights Act.... The Bill That Lay On The Polished Mahogany Desk Was Born In Violence In Selma, Alabama, Where A Stubborn Sheriff... Had Stumbled Against The Future.

Nonviolence Is An Imperative In Order To Bring About Ultimate Community.

There Is Nothing In All The World Greater Than Freedom. It Is Worth Paying For; It Is Worth Going To Jail For. I Would Rather Be A Free Pauper Than A Rich Slave. I Would Rather Die In Abject Poverty With My Convictions Than Live In Inordinate Riches With The Lack Of Self Respect.

We Cannot Walk Alone. And As We Walk, We Must Make The Pledge That We Shall Always March Ahead. We Cannot Turn Back.

I Have A Dream Speech

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.

A Second Basic Fact That Characterizes Nonviolence Is That It Does Not Seek To Defeat Or Humiliate The Opponent, But To Win His Friendship And Understanding.

Beloved Community

From The Prodigious Hilltops Of New Hampshire, Let Freedom Ring. From The Mighty Mountains Of New York, Let Freedom Ring. From The Heightening Alleghenies Of Pennsylvania, Let Freedom Ring. But Not Only That: Let Freedom Ring From Every Hill And Molehill Of Mississippi.

The Ability To Lead A Happy Life Is Made, Not Found

Mind Your Own Business

Brutality Was Imprisoned In A Lumious Glare Revealing The Naked Truth To The Whole World

I Am Not Interested In Power For Power's Sake, But I'm Interested In Power That Is Moral, That Is Right And That Is Good.

Hate Is Too Heavy A Burden To Bear.

Find A Voice In A Whisper.

As My Sufferings Mounted I Soon Realized That There Were Two Ways In Which I Could Respond To My Situation -- Either To React With Bitterness Or Seek To Transform The Suffering Into A Creative Force. I Decided To Follow The Latter Course.

We Are Out To Defeat Injustice And Not White Persons Who May Be Unjust.

Our Lives Are Not Fully Lived If We're Not Willing To Die For Those We Love, For What We Believe.

To Deny A Man A Job Is To Say That A Man Has No Right To Exist.

I Want To Be The White Man's Brother, Not His Brother-in-law.

If America's Soul Becomes Totally Poisoned, Part Of The Autopsy Must Read Vietnam. It Can Never Be Saved So Long As It Destroys The Hopes Of Men The World Over.

Nonviolence Is The Most Potent Technique For Oppressed People. Unearned Suffering Is Redemptive.

If You Succumb To The Temptation Of Using Violence In The Struggle, Unborn Generations Will Be The Recipients Of A Long And Desolate Night Of Bitterness, And Your Chief Legacy To The Future Will Be An Endless Reign Of Meaningless Chaos.

Through Nonviolent Resistance The Negro Will Be Able To Rise To The Noble Height Of Opposing The Unjust System While Loving The Perpetrators Of The System.

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?

A Man Does Not Measure Its Height In Moments Of Comfort, But In Terms Of Change And Controversy

Segregation, As Even The Segregationists Know In Their Hearts, Is Morally Wrong And Sinful. If It Weren't, The White South Would Not Be Haunted As It Is By A Deep Sense Of Guilt For What It Has Done To The Negro - Guilt For Patronizing Him, Degrading Him, Brutalizing Him, Depersonalizing Him, Thingifying Him; Guilt For Lying To Itself. This Is The Source Of The Schizophrenia That The South Will Suffer Until It Goes Through Its Crisis Of Conscience.

Many People In Harlem Never Go Out Of Harlem. I Mean They'd Never Even Been Downtown. And You Can See How This Bitterness Can Accumulate. Here You See People Crowded And Hovered Up In Ghettos And Slums With No Hope.they See No Way Out.

Slavery In America Was Perpetuated Not Merely By Human Badness But Also By Human Blindness. ... Men Convinced Themselves That A System That Was So Economically Profitable Must Be Morally Justifiable. ... Science Was Commandeered To Prove The Biological Inferiority Of The Negro. Even Philosophical Logic Was Manipulated [exemplified By] An Aristotlian Syllogism: All Men Are Made In The Image Of God; God, As Everyone Knows, Is Not A Negro; Therefore, The Negro Is Not A Man.

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 With Values. The Two Are Not Rivals. They Are Complementary.

Intelligence Plus Character-that Is The Goal Of True Education.

Love Is Creative And Redemptive. Love Builds Up And Unites; Hate Tears Down And Destroys. The Aftermath Of The ‘fight With Fire’ Method...is Bitterness And Chaos, The Aftermath Of The Love Method Is Reconciliation And Creation Of The Beloved Community...yes , Love-which Means Understanding, Creative, Redemptive Goodwill, Even For One’s Enemies-is The Solution

A Church That Has Lost Its Voice For Justice Is A Church That Has Lost Its Relevance In The World.

A True Revolution Of Values Will Soon Cause Us To Question The Fairness And Justice Of Many Of Our Present Policies... True Compassion Is More Than Flinging A Coin To A Beggar. A True Revolution Of Values Will Soon Look On Uneasily Upon The Glaring Contrast Of Poverty And Wealth With Righteous Indignation.

It Is No Longer A Choice Between Violence And Nonviolence In This World; It's Nonviolence Or Nonexistence. That Is Where We Are Today.

Commit Yourself To The Noble Struggle For Human Rights. You Will Make A Greater Person Of Yourself, A Greater Nation Of Your Country And A Finer World To Live In.

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.

Every Person Must Stand Up And Be Accountable, But Be Responsible For Their Actions.

Being Responsible

We Must Move Past Indecision To Action. We Must Find New Ways To Speak For Peace In Vietnam And For Justice Throughout The Developing World, A World That Borders On Our Doors. If We Do Not Act, We Shall Surely Be Dragged Down The Long, Dark, And Shameful Corridors Of Time Reserved For Those Who Possess Power Without Compassion, Might Without Morality, And Strength Without Sight.

I Must Face The Fact, As All Others In Positions Of Leadership Must Do, That America Today Is An Extremely Sick Nation, And That Something Could Well Happen To Me At Any Time. I Feel, Though, That My Cause Is So Right, So Moral, That If I Should Lose My Life, In Some Way It Would Aid The Cause.

We Should Never Forget That Everything Adolf Hitler Did In Germany Was “legal” And Everything The Hungarian Freedom Fighters Did In Hungary Was “illegal.” It Was “illegal” To Aid And Comfort A Jew In Hitler’s Germany. Even So, I Am Sure That, Had I Lived In Germany At The Time, I Would Have Aided And Comforted My Jewish Brothers. If Todayi Lived In A Communist Country Where Certain Principles Dear To The Christian Faith Are Suppressed, I Would Openly Advocate Disobeying That Country's Antireligious Laws.

Whenever The Early Christians Entered A Town The Power Structure Got Disturbed And Immediately Sought To Convict Them For Being "disturbers Of The Peace" And "outside Agitators." But They Went On With The Conviction That They Were "a Colony Of Heaven," And Had To Obey God Rather Than Man. They Were Small In Number But Big In Commitment. They Were Too God-intoxicated To Be "astronomically Intimidated." They Brought An End To Such Ancient Evils As Infanticide And Gladiatorial Contest.

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.

Returning Hate, Adding Deeper Darkness To A Night That Is Already Void Of Stars. Darkness Cannot Drive Out Darkness: Only Light Can Do That. Hate Cannot Drive Out Hate: Only Love Can Do That.

Everybody Can Be Great...because Anybody Can Serve. You Don't Have To Have A College Degree To Serve. You Don't Have To Make Your Subject And Verb Agree To Serve. You Only Need A Heart Full Of Grace. A Soul Generated By Love.

The Question Is No Longer Between Violence And Non-violence It Is Between Non-violence And Non-existence.

The Limitation Of Riots, Moral Questions Aside, Is That They Cannot Win And Their Participants Know It. Hence, Rioting Is Not Revolutionary But Reactionary Because It Invites Defeat. It Involves An Emotional Catharsis, But It Must Be Followed By A Sense Of Futility.

Hatred Darkens Life; Love Illumines It.

We Were Taking The Black Young Men Who Had Been Crippled By Our Society And Sending Them Eight Thousand Miles Away To Guarantee Liberties In Southeast Asia Which They Had Not Found In Southwest Georgia And East Harlem.

Courage Faces Fear And Thereby Masters It. Cowardice Represses Fear And Is Thereby Mastered By It.

I Have A Dream Today!

There's Something About Love That Builds Up And Is Creative. There Is Something About Hate That Tears Down And Is Destructive. So Love Your Enemies.

I've Told The Kids In The Ghettos That Violence Won't Solve Their Problems, But Then They Ask Me, And Rightly So; "why Does The Government Use Massive Doses Of Violence To Bring About The Change It Wants In The World?" After This I Knew That I Could No Longer Speak Against The Violence In The Ghettos Without Also Speaking Against The Violence Of My Government.

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.

Don't Ever Let Anyone Pull You So Low As To Hate Them. We Must Use The Weapon Of Love. We Must Have The Compassion And Understanding For Those Who Hate Us. We Must Realize So Many People Are Taught To Hate Us That They Are Not Totally Responsible For Their Hate. But We Stand In Life At Midnight; We Are Always On The Threshold Of A New Dawn.

When People Criticize Zionists, They Mean Jews. You Are Talking Anti-semitism.

Love Even For Enemies Is The Key To The Solution Of The Problems Of Our World.

Before It Is Too Late, We Must Narrow The Gaping Chasm Between Our Proclomations Of Peace And Our Lowly Deeds Which Precipitate And Perpetuate War.

Be True To What You Said On Paper.

I Have A Dream That One Day Even The State Of Mississippi, A Desert State, Sweltering With The Heat Of Injustice And Oppression, Will Be Transformed Into An Oasis Of Freedom And Justice.

The Whirlwinds Of Revolt Will Continue To Shake The Foundations Of Our Nation Until The Bright Day Of Justice Emerges.

I Have A Dream Speech

A Nation That Continues Year After Year To Spend More Money On Military Defense Than On Programs Of Social Uplift Is Approaching Spiritual Doom.

Science Keeps Religion From Sinking Into The Valley Of Crippling Irrationalism And Paralyzing Obscurantism. Religion Prevents Science From Falling Into The Marsh Of Obsolete Materialism And Moral Nihilism.

One Who Breaks An Unjust Law That Conscience Tells Him Is Unjust ... Is In Reality Expressing The Highest Respect For Law ... We Will Not Obey Your Evil Laws.

Trending Author

Theodore Hesburgh

Margaret Fuller

Kristin Chenoweth

Category