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I Look Forward Confidently To The Day When All Who Work For A Living Will Be One With No Thought To Their Separateness As Negroes, Jews, Italians Or Any Other Distinctions. This Will Be The Day When We Bring Into Full Realization The American Dream -- A Dream Yet Unfulfilled.

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

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I Look Forward Confidently

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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I Look Forward Confidently To The Day When All Who Work For A Living Will Be One With No Thought To Their Separateness As Negroes, Jews, Italians Or Any Other Distinctions. This Will Be The Day When We Bring Into Full Realization The American Dream -- A Dream Yet Unfulfilled.

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More From Martin Luther King, Jr.

[nonviolence] Is Directed Against Forces Of Evil Rather Than Against Persons Who Happen To Be Doing The Evil. It Is Evil That The Nonviolent Resister Seeks To Defeat, Not The Persons Victimized By Evil.

The Movement For Equality And Justice Can Only Be A Success If It Has Both A Mass And Militant Character; The Barriers To Be Overcome Require Both.

We Must Build Dikes Of Courage To Hold Back The Flood Of Fear.

Those Who Are Not Looking For Happiness Are The Most Likely To Find It, Because Those Who Are Searching Forget That The Surest Way To Be Happy Is To Seek Happiness For Others.

The Problem Of Racism, The Problem Of Economic Exploitation, And The Problem Of War Are All Tied Together. These Are The Triple Evils That Are Interrelated.

Everything That We See Is A Shadow Cast By That Which We Do Not See.

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.

It Is Our Experience That The Nation Doesn't Move Around Questions Of Genuine Equality For The Poor And For Black People Until It Is Confronted Massively, Dramatically In Terms Of Direct Action.

A Religion True To Its Nature Must Also Be Concerned About Man's Social Conditions....a Ny Religion That Professes To Be Concerned With The Souls Of Men And Is Not Concerned With The Slums That Damn Them, The Economic Conditions That Strangle Them, And The Social Conditions That Cripple Them Is A Dry-as-dust Religion.

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

Breaking Silence

I Think That My Strong Determination For Justice Comes From The Very Strong, Dynamic Personality Of My Father ... I Have Rarely Ever Met A Person More Fearless And Courageous Than My Father ... The Thing That I Admire Most About My Dad Is His Genuine Christian Character. He Is A Man Of Real Integrity, Deeply Committed To Moral And Ethical Principles. He Is Conscientious In All Of His Undertakings ... If I Had A Problem I Could Always Call Daddy.

There Is Something In The Soul That Cries Out For Freedom.

Ordinarily, A Person Leaving A Courtroom With A Conviction Behind Him Would Wear A Somber Face. But I Left With A Smile. I Knew That I Was A Convicted Criminal, But I Was Proud Of My Crime.

When Our Days Become Dreary With Low Hovering Clouds Of Despair, And When Our Nights Become Darker Than A Thousand Midnights, Let Us Remember That There Is A Creative Force In This Universe, Working To Pull Down The Gigantic Mountains Of Evil, A Power That Is Able To Make A Way Out Of No Way And Transform Dark Yesterdays Into Bright Tomorrows. Let Us Realize The Arc Of The Moral Universe Is Long But It Bends Toward Justice.

Mother Dear, One Day I'm Going To Turn This World Upside Down." --from My Brother Martin, By Christine King Farris

If You Will Protest Courageously, And Yet With Dignity And Christian Love, When The History Books Are Written In Future Generations, The Historians Will Have To Pause And Say, "there Lived A Great People-a Black People-who Injected New Meaning And Dignity Into The Veins Of Civilization.

Now There Is A Final Reason I Think That Jesus Says, 'love Your Enemies.' It Is This: That Love Has Within It A Redemptive Power. And There Is A Power There That Eventually Transforms Individuals.

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

Negro Leaders Sought To Negotiate With The City Fathers. But The Political Leaders Consistently Refused To Engage In Good-faith Negotiation.

The Time Has Come For America To Hear The Truth About This Tragic War. In International Conflicts, The Truth Is Hard To Come By Because Most Nations Are Deceived About Themselves. Rationalizations And The Incessant Search For Scapegoats Are The Psychological Cataracts That Blind Us To Our Sins. But The Day Has Passed For Superficial Patriotism. He Who Lives With Untruth Lives In Spiritual Slavery.

The Body Is God's Temple, But We Are To Worship God, Not The Temple.

The Soft-minded Man Always Fears Change. He Feels Security In The Status Quo, And He Has An Almost Morbid Fear Of The New. For Him, The Greatest Pain Is The Pain Of A New Idea.

Segregation Is The Adultery Of An Illicit Intercourse Between Injustice And Immorality.

This Is The Unusual Thing About Nonviolence -- Nobody Is Defeated, Everybody Shares In The Victory.

I Have A Dream Today!

Justice Is Love Correcting That Which Revolts Against Love.

Jesus Is Not An Impractical Idealist; He Is The Practical Realist.

The Decision We Must Make Now Is Whether We Will Give Our Allegiance To Outmoded And Unjust Customs Or To The Ethical Demands Of The Universe. As Christians We Owe Our Allegiance To God And His Will, Rather Than To Man And His Folkways

If You Want To Be Important-wonderful. If You Want To Be Recognized-wonderful. If You Want To Be Great-wonderful. But Recognize That He Who Is Greatest Among You Shall Be Your Servant. That's A New Definition Of Greatness.

We Will Not Build A Peaceful World By Following A Negative Path. It Is Not Enough To Say We Will Not Wage War. It Is Necessary To Love Peace And Sacrifice For It. We Must Concentrate Not Merely On The Negative Expulsion Of War, But On The Positive Affirmation Of Peace

Love Is Basic For The Very Survival Of Mankind. I'm Convinced That Love Is The Only Absolute Ultimately; Love Is The Highest Good. He Who Loves Has Somehow Discovered The Meaning Of Ultimate Reality. He Who Hates Does Not Know God; He Who Hates Has No Knowledge Of God. Love Is The Supreme Unifying Principle Of Life.

I Would Be The Last To Condemn The Thousands Of Sincere And Dedicated People Outside The Churches Who Have Labored Unselfishly Through Various Humanitarian Movements To Cure The World Of Social Evils, For I Would Rather A Man Be A Committed Humanist Than An Uncommitted Christian.

Many White Americans Of Good Will Have Never Connected Bigotry With Economic Exploitation. They Have Deplored Prejudice But Tolerated Or Ignored Economic Injustice.

Man Is Not Made For The State; The State Is Made For Man. To Deprive Man Of Freedom Is To Relegate Him To The Status Of A Thing, Rather Than Elevate Him To The Status Of A Person. Man Must Never Be Treated As A Means To The End Of The State, But Always As An End Within Himself.

Wisdom Born Of Experience Should Tell Us That War Is Obsolete. There May Have Been A Time When War Served As A Negative Good By Preventing The Spread And Growth Of An Evil Force If We Assume That Life Is Worth Living, If We Assume That Mankind Has The Right To Survive, Then We Must Find An Alternative To War.

If The Cruelties Of Slavery Could Not Stop Us, The Opposition We Now 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.

These Are The Times For Real Choices And Not False Ones. We Are At The Moment When Our Lives Must Be Placed On The Line If Our Nation Is To Survive Its Own Folly. Every Man Of Humane Convictions Must Decide On The Protest That Best Suits His Convictions, But We Must All Protest.

A World War - God Forbid! - Will Leave Only Smoldering Ashes As A Mute Testimony Of A Human Race Whose Folly Led Inexorably To Untimely Death. Yet There Are Those Who Sincerely Feel That Disarmament Is An Evil And International Negotiation Is An Abominable Waste Of Time.

I Think The Inconveniences Of A Segregated Education Are Much Greater Than The Inconveniences Of Busing Students So That They Can Get An Integrated Quality Education.

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

I May Be Crucified For My Beliefs And, If I Am, You Can Say, "he Died To Make Men Free.

Forgiveness Is Not An Occasional Act. It Is A Permanent Attitude. That Which I Was Not But Could Have Been. That Which I Would Have Done But Did Not Do. Can I Find The Fortitude To Remember In Truth,to Understand, To Submit, To Forgive And To Be Free To Move On In Time?

It All Boils Down To This: That All Life Is Interrelated.

We Must Learn To Live Together As Brothers Or Perish Together As Fools.

I Plan To Stand By Nonviolence, Because I Have Found It To Be A Philosophy Of Life That Regulates Not Only My Dealings In The Struggle For Racial Justice, But Also My Dealings With People, And With My Own Self.

Life Isn't Worth Living Until You Have Found Something Worth Dying For.

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

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?

I Cannot Forget That The Nobel Prize For Peace Was Also A Commission - A Commission To Work Harder Than I Had Ever Worked Before For "the Brotherhood Of Man".

Brotherhood Of Man

We Have Flown The Air Like Birds And Swum The Sea Like Fishes, But Have Yet To Learn The Simple Act Of Walking The Earth Like Brothers.

My Uncertainty Disappeared. Segregation Is Evil, And I Cannot, As A Minister, Condone Evil.

"when I Speak Of Love I Am Not Speaking Of Some Sentimental And Weak Response. I Am Not Speaking Of That Force Which Is Just Emotional Bosh. I Am Speaking Of That Force Which All Of The Great Religions Have Seen As The Supreme Unifying Principle Of Life. Love Is Somehow The Key That Unlocks The Door Which Leads To Ultimate Reality."

The More I Thought About Human Nature, The More I Saw How Our Tragic Inclination For Sin/mistakes Causes Us To Use Our Minds To Rationalize Our Action.

I Am What I Am Because Of Who We All Are.

Had It Not Been For The Ministry Of My Good Friend Dr. Billy Graham, My Work In The Civil Rights Movement Would Not Have Been As Successful As It Has Been.

He (jesus) Knew That The Old Eye-for-eye Philosophy Would Leave Everyone Blind. He Did Not Seek To Overcome Evil With Evil. He Overcame Evil With Good. Although Crucified By Hate, He Responded With Aggressive Love.

If I Were Constantly Worried About Death, I Couldn't Function. After A While, If Your Life Is More Or Less Constantly In Peril, You Come To A Point Where You Accept The Possibility Philosophically.

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

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.

The Hope Of The World Is Still In Dedicated Minorities. The Trail-blazers In Human, Scientific And Religious Freedom Have Always Been In A Minority.

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

The Sweltering Summer Of The Negro's Legitimate Discontent Will Not Pass Until There Is An Invigorating Autumn Of Freedom And Equality.

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. The Negro All Over The South Must Come To The Point That He Can Say To His White Brother: "we Will Match Your Capacity To Inflict Suffering With Our Capacity To Endure Suffering. We Will Meet Your Physical Force With Soul Force. We Will Not Hate You, But We Will Not Obey Your Evil Laws. We Will Soon Wear You Down By Pure Capacity To Suffer".

The Great Military Leaders Of The Past Have Gone, Their Empires Have Crumbled And Burned To Ashes. But The Empire Of Jesus, Built Solidly And Majestically On The Foundation Of Love, Is Still Growing.

The Strong Man Holds In A Living Blend Strongly Marked Opposites. The Idealists Are Not Usually Realistic, And The Realists Are Not Usually Idealistic. The Militant Are Not Generally Known To Be Passive, Nor The Passive To Be Militant. Seldom Are The Humble Self-assertive, Or The Self-assertive Humble. But Life At It's Best Is A Creative Synthesis Of Opposites In Fruitful Harmony.

Hatred Darkens Life; Love Illumines It.

Love Is Understanding, Redemptive Goodwill For All Men, So That You Love Everybody.

Means We Use Must Be As Pure As The Ends We Seek.

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 Must Move Forward In The Days Ahead With Audacious Faith. The Moral Arc Of The Universe Is Long But It Bends Toward Justice.

The Purpose Of Direct Action Is To Create A Situation So Crisis-packed That It Will Inevitably Open The Door To Negotiation.

I Don't Think You Can Be In Public Life Without Being Called Bad Names.

I Was In The Kitchen Drinking Coffee When I Heard Coretta Cry, "martin, Martin, Come Quickly!" I Put Down My Cup And Ran Toward The Living Room. As I Approached The Front Window Coretta Pointed Joyfully To A Slowly Moving Bus: "darling, It's Empty!

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

The Most Dangerous Criminal May Be The Man Gifted With Reason, But With No Morals.

It Is Love That Will Save Our World And Our Civilization.

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

While The Question Of Who Killed President Kennedy Is Important, The Question 'what Killed Him' Is More Important.

President Kennedy

I Am Not Afraid Of The Word Tension.

Creative Tension

I Was Convinced That Worship At Its Best Is A Social Experience With People Of All Levels Of Life Coming Together To Realize Their Oneness And Unity Under God. Whenever The Church, Consciously Or Unconsciously, Caters To One Class It Loses The Spiritual Force Of The "whosoever Will, Let Him Come, Doctrine And Is In Danger Of Becoming A Little More Than A Social Club With A Thin Veneer Of Religiosity."

The Sooner Our Society Admits That The Negro Revolution Is No Momentary Outburst Soon To Subside Into Placid Passivity, The Easier The Future Will Be For Us All.

Love Is The Most Durable Power In The World. This Creative Force Is The Most Potent Instrument Available In Mankind's Quest For Peace And Security.

Never Could I Advocate Nonviolence In This Country And Not Advocate Nonviolence For The Whole World.

[nonviolence] Seeks To Secure Moral Ends Through Moral Means.

The United States Is The Largest Exporter Of Violence In The World

Time Has Been Used Destructively By People Of Ill Will Much More Than It Has Been Used Constructively By Those Of Good Will.

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.

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!"

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.

One Day The Absurdity Of The Almost Universal Human Belief In The Slavery Of Other Animals Will Be Palpable. We Shall Then Have Discovered Our Souls And Become Worthier Of Sharing This Planet With Them.

As A Teenager I Had Never Been Able To Accept The Fact Of Having To Go To The Back Of A Bus Or Sit In The Segregated Section Of A Train. The First Time I Had Been Seated Behind A Curtain In A Dining Car, I Felt As If The Curtain Had Been Dropped On My Selfhood.

Violence Is Not Only Impractical But Immoral.

The First Principle Of Value That We Need To Rediscover Is This: That All Reality Hinges On Moral Foundations. In Other Words, That This Is A Moral Universe, And That There Are Moral Laws Of The Universe Just As Abiding As The Physical Laws.

It Was Argued That The Negro Was Inferior By Nature Because Of Noah's Curse Upon The Children Of Ham.... The Greatest Blasphemy Of The Whole Ugly Process Was That The White Man Ended Up Making God His Partner In The Exploitation Of The Negro.

I'm Thinking Of Love In Action And Not Something Where You Say, "love Your Enemies," And Just Leave It At That, But You Love Your Enemies To The Point That You're Willing To Sit-in At A Lunch Counter In Order To Help Them Find Themselves. You're Willing To Go To Jail.

When The Negro Was Completely An Underdog, He Needed White Spokesmen. Liberals Played Their Parts In This Period Exceedingly Well.... But Now That The Negro Has Rejected His Role As An Underdog, He Has Become More Assertive In His Search For Identity And Group Solidarity; He Wants To Speak For Himself.

As Long As The Mind Is Enslaved, The Body Can Never Be Free. Psychological Freedom, A Firm Sense Of Self-esteem, Is The Most Powerful Weapon Against The Long Night Of Physical Slavery.

I Have A Dream That One Day Little Black Boys And Girls Will Be Holding Hands With Little White Boys And Girls.

Wars Are Poor Chisels For Carving Out Peaceful Tomorrows.

We Must In Strength And Humility Meet Hate With Love.

The Ultimate Tragedy Is Not The Oppression And Cruelty By The Bad People But The Silence Over That By The Good People.

Call It Democracy, Or Call It Democratic Socialism, But There Must Be A Better Distribution Of Wealth Within This Country For All God's Children.

Voting Is The Foundation Stone For Political Action.

I Think In This Phase, After The Negro Emerges In And From The Desegregated Society, Then A Great Deal Of Time Must Be Spent In Improving Standards Which Lag Behind To A Large Extent Because Of Segregation,discrimination, And The Legacy Of Slavery.

You Have Very Little Morally Persuasive Power With People Who Can Feel Your Underlying Contempt.

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

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.

Sooner Or Later, All The Peoples Of The World Will Have To Discover A Way To Live Together In Peace, And Thereby Transform This Pending Cosmic Elegy Into A Creative Psalm Of Brotherhood.

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.

Why Is The Church Always A Taillight Rather Than A Headlight?

There Are More Negroes In Jail With Me Than There Are On The Voting Rolls.

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 To Lead Us Easily And Inevitably To Quick Solutions. We Must Keep Going.

Ten Thousand Fools Proclaim Themselves Into Obscurity, While One Wise Man Forgets Himself Into Immortality.

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

When We Allow Freedom Ring, When We Let It Ring From Every Village And Every Hamlet, From Every State And Every City...

I Have A Dream Speech

Every Man Of Humane Convictions Must Decide On The Protest That Best Suits His Convictions, But We Must All Protest.

To Ignore Evil Is To Become An Accomplice To It.

Black Power Is A Nihilistic Philosophy Born Out Of The Conviction That The Negro Can't Win... The View That American Society Is So Hopelessly Corrupt And Enmeshed In Evil That There Is No Possibility Of Salvation From Within.

There Is No Gain Without Struggle.

There Are Often Multiple Sources For Some Famous Statements By King; As A Professional Speaker And Minister He Used Some Significant Phrases With Only Slight Variation Many Times In His Essays, Books, And His Speeches To Different Audiences.

And One Day We Must Ask The Question, "why Are There Forty Million Poor People In America?" And When You Begin To Ask That Question, You Are Raising Questions About The Economic System, About A Broader Distribution Of Wealth. When You Ask That Question, You Begin To Question The Capitalistic Economy.

I Am Disappointed With America. And There Can Be No Great Disappointment Where There Is Not Great Love. I Am Disappointed With Our Failure To Deal Positively And Forthrightly With The Triple Evils Of Racism, Economic Exploitation, And Militarism. We Are Presently Moving Down A Dead-end Road That Can Lead To National Disaster. America Has Strayed To The Far Country Of Racism And Militarism.

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.

Civilization And Violence Are Antithetical Concepts.

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.

You Don't Have To See The Whole Staircase, Just Take The First Step.

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.

Returning Hate For Hate Multiplies Hate, Adding Deeper Darkness To A Night Already Devoid Of Stars. Darkness Cannot Drive Out Darkness; Only Light Can Do That. Hate Cannot Drive Out Hate; Only Love Can Do That.

Nonviolence Is A Powerful And Just Weapon. Which Cuts Without Wounding And Ennobles The Man Who Wields It. It Is A Sword That Heals.

The Universe Is On The Side Of Justice

But Though I Was Initially Disappointed At Being Categorized As An Extremist, As I Continued To Think About The Matter I Gradually Gained A Measure Of Satisfaction From The Label. Was Not Jesus An Extremist For Love: “love Your Enemies, Bless Them That Curse You, Do Good To Them That Hate You, And Pray For Them Which Despitefully Use You, And Persecute You.”

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

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

I Think That We've Got To Come To See This. The Negro Is An American.

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

When A Nation Becomes Obsessed With The Guns Of War, It Loses Its Social Perspective.... There Is Something About A War Like This That Makes People Insensitive. It Dulls The Conscience. It Strengthens The Forces Of Reaction, And It Brings Into Being Bitterness And Hatred And Violence.

The More There Are Riots, The More Repressive Actin Will Take Place, And The More We Face The Danger Of A Right-wing Takeover And Eventually A Fascist Society.

I May Not Get There With You, But I Believe That We As A People Will Someday Reach The Promised Land.

We Cannot Walk Alone.

It Is Always The Right Time To Do The Right Thing.

If You Can't Be A Sun, Be A Star. For It Isn't By Size That You Win Or Fail. Be The Best Of Whatever You Are.

The End Of Violence Or The Aftermath Of Violence Is Bitterness. The Aftermath Of Nonviolence Is Reconciliation And The Creation Of A Beloved Community. A Boycott Is Never An End Within Itself. It Is Merely A Means To Awaken A Sense Of Shame Within The Oppressor But The End Is Reconciliation, The End Is Redemption.

Beloved Community

Somebody Must Have Sense Enough And Morality Enough To Cut Off The Chain Of Hate And The Chain Of Evil In The Universe. And You Do That By Love

I Could Never Adjust To The Separate Waiting Rooms, Separate Eating Places, Separate Rest Rooms, Partly Because The Separate Was Always Unequal, And Partly Because The Very Idea Of Separation Did Something To My Sense Of Dignity And Self-respect.

I Am Convinced That...in The Struggle For Righteousness Man Has Cosmic Companionship.

When The Negro Finds The Courage To Be Free, He Faces Dogs And Guns And Clubs And Fire Hoses Totally Unafraid, And The White Men With Those Dogs, Guns, Clubs And Fire Hoses See That The Negro They Have Traditionally Called "boy" Has Become A Man.

Cowardice Is Submissive Surrender To Circumstances.

It Is A Tragic Mix-up When The United States Spends 500,000 For Every Enemy Soldier Killed, And Only 53 Annually On The Victims Of Poverty.

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

We Have Waited For More Than Three Hundred And Forty Years For Our Constitutional And God-given Rights.

Do To Us What You Will, And We Will Still Love You. Bomb Our Homes And Threaten Our Children, And As Difficult As It Is, We Will Still Love You. But We Assured That We'll Wear You Down By Our Capacity To Suffer, And One Day We Will Win Our Freedom. We Will Not Only Win Freedom For Ourselves, We Will So Appeal To Your Heart And Conscience That We Will Win You In The Process, And Our Victory Will Be A Double Victory.

I May Not Be The Man I Want To Be; I May Not Be The Man I Ought To Be; I May Not Be The Man I Could Be; I May Not Be The Man I Truly Can Be; But Praise God, I'm Not The Man I Once Was

In Spite Of The Fact That The Law Of Revenge Solves No Social Problems, Men Continue To Follow Its Disastrous Leading. History Is Cluttered With The Wreckage Of Nations And Individuals That Pursued This Self-defeating Path.

When Our Days Become Dreary With Low-hovering Clouds And Our Nights Become Darker Than A Thousand Midnights, We Will Know That We Are Living In The Creative Turmoil Of A Genuine Civilization Struggling To Be Born.

There Is Little Hope For Us Until We Become Tough-minded Enough To Break Loose From The Shackles Of Prejudice, Half-truths, And Downright Ignorance. The Shape Of The World Today Does Not Permit Us The Luxury Of Soft Mindedness. A Nation Or A Civilization That Continues To Produce Soft Minded Men Purchases Its Own Spiritual Death On An Installment Plan.

If You Can't Fly Then Run, If You Can't Run Then Walk, If You Can't Walk Then Crawl, But Whatever You Do You Have To Keep Moving Forward.

Love Is The Only Force Capable Of Transforming An Enemy Into Friend.

Riots Are The Voices Of The Unheard.

Whenever You Are Engaged In Work That Serves Humanity And Is For The Building Of Humanity, It Has Dignity And It Has Worth.

The Hope Of A Secure And Livable World Lies With Disciplined Nonconformists, Who Are Dedicated To Justice, Peace And Brotherhood. The Trailblazers In Human, Academic, Scientific And Religious Freedom Have Always Been Nonconformists. In Any Cause That Concerns The Progress Of Mankind, Put Your Faith In The Nonconformist!

Justice Too Long Delayed Is Justice Denied.

Will We Be Extremists For Hate, Or Will We Be Extremists For Love? Will We Be Extremists For The Preservation Of Injustice, Or Will We Be Extremists For The Cause Of Justice?

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!

The Church Must Be The Critic And Guide Of The State, And Never Its Tool.

It Really Boils Down To This: That All Life Is Interrelated. We Are All Caught In An Inescapable Network Of Mutuality, Tired Into A Single Garment Of Destiny. Whatever Affects One Destiny, Affects All Indirectly.

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.

I Think There Can Be A Collective Leadership. Maybe Some Symbolize The Struggle [for Human's Rights] A Little More Than Others, But I Think It's Absolutely Necessary For The Leadership To Be United In Order To Make The Revolution Effective.

Is Is Always Time To Do The Right Thing.

Violence Often Brings About Momentary Results.

The Christian Faith Makes It Possible For Us Nobly To Accept That Which Cannot Be Changed, And To Meet Disappointments And Sorrow With An Inner Poise, And To Absorb The Most Intense Pain Without Abandoning Our Sense Of Hope.

[w]e Are The Heirs Of A Past Of Rope, Fire, And Murder. I For One Am Not Ashamed Of This Past. My Shame Is For Those Who Became So Inhuman That They Could Inflict This Torture Upon Us.

I Still Have A Dream Today That One Day War Will Come To An End, That Men Will Beat Their Swords Into Plowshares And Their Spears Into Pruning Hooks, That Nations Will No Longer Rise Up Against Nations, Neither Will They Study War Any More.

Jesus Reminds Us That The Good Life Combines The Toughness Of The Serpent And The Tenderness Of The Dove. To Have Serpent-like Qualities Devoid Of Dovelike Qualities Is To Be Passionless, Mean, And Selfish. To Have Dovelike Without Serpent-like Qualities Is To Be Sentimental, Anemic And Aimless. We Must Combine Strongly Marked Antitheses.

Freedom Is Never Voluntarily Given By The Oppressor; It Must Be Demanded By The Oppressed.

As The Weeks And Months Unfolded, We Realized That We Were The Victims Of A Broken Promise.

We Are Now Faced With The Fact, My Friends, That Tomorrow Is Today. We Are Confronted With The Fierce Urgency Of Now.

Breaking Silence

My Parents Would Always Tell Me That I Should Not Hate The White Man, But That It Was My Duty As A Christian To Love Him.

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.

Perhaps...the Nation And The World Are In Dire Need Of Creative Extremists.

Political Extremism

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.

I Have Decided To Love. If You Are Seeking The Highest Good, I Think You Can Find It Through Love. God Is Love.

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.

"i Criticize America Because I Love Her. I Want Her To Stand As A Moral Example To The World."

In The Event Of A Violent Revolution, We Would Be Sorely Outnumbered. And When It Was All Over, The Negro Would Face The Same Unchanged Conditions, The Same Squalor And Deprivation-the Only Difference Being That His Bitterness Would Be Even More Intense, His Disenchantment Even More Abject. Thus, In Purely Practical As Well As Moral Terms, The American Negro Has No Rational Alternative To Nonviolence.

The Real Problem Is That Through Our Scientific Genius We’ve Made Of The World A Neighborhood, But Through Our Moral And Spiritual Genius We’ve Failed To Make Of It A Brotherhood.

It Will Be One Of The Tragedies Of Christian History If Future Historians Record That At The Height Of The Twentieth Century The Church Was One Of The Greatest Bulwarks Of White Supremacy.

I Knew That I Could Never Again Raise My Voice Against The Violence Of The Oppressed In The Ghettos Without Having First Spoken Clearly To The Greatest Purveyor Of Violence In The World Today - My Own Government.... There Is Something Strangely Inconsistent About A Nation And A Press That Would Praise You When You Say, 'be Nonviolent Toward Jim Clark,' But Will Curse And Damn You When You Say, 'be Nonviolent Toward Little Brown Vietnamese Children!' There Is Something Wrong With That Press.

If A Man Hasn't Discovered Something That He Will Die For, He Isn't Fit To Live.

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.

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.

Lord Help Me To See M. L. King As M. L. King In His True Perspective.

The World In Which We Live Is Geographically One. The Challenge That We Face Today Is To Make It One In Terms Of Brotherhood.

A True Revolution Of Values Will See That The Western Arrogance Of Feeling That It Has Everything To Teach Others And Nothing To Learn From Them Is Not Just.

Breaking Silence

The Belief That God Will Do Everything For Man Is As Untenable As The Belief That Man Can Do Everything For Himself. It, Too, Is Based On A Lack Of Faith. We Must Learn That To Expect God To Do Everything While We Do Nothing Is Not Faith But Superstition.

I'll Tell You, I've Seen The Lightning Flash. I've Heard The Thunder Roll. I Felt Sin-breakers Dashing, Trying To Conquer My Soul. But I Heard The Voice Of Jesus Saying Still To Fight On.

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.

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.

The Ultimate Solution To The Race Problem Lies In The Willingness Of Men To Obey The Unenforceable.

My Friends, I Must Say To You That We Have Not Made A Single Gain In Civil Rights Without Determined Legal And Nonviolent Pressure.

Power Properly Understood Is Nothing But The Ability To Achieve Purpose. It Is The Strength Required To Bring About Social, Political And Economic Change.

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