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Wherever Schools Can Be Integrated Through The Busing Method, And Where It Won't Be Just A, A Terrible Inconvenience, I Think It Ought To Be Done.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Wherever Schools Can Be

Martin Luther King, Jr.
...
Wherever Schools Can Be Integrated Through The Busing Method, And Where It Won't Be Just A, A Terrible Inconvenience, I Think It Ought To Be Done.

Understanding the Quote: "wherever schools can be integrated through the busing method, and where it..."

This quote by Martin Luther King, Jr. reflects deeply on the theme of school. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under School, Thinking, Done, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Martin Luther King, Jr. interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. is celebrated for insightful thoughts on school and thinking. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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School
Thinking
Done
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Issues
Needs
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.
Jobs
Men
White Man
There Is Something Wrong With Our World, Something Fundamentally And Basically Wrong.
Our World
World
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.
Dog
Gun
Boys
We Must Remember That Intelligence Is Not Enough. Intelligence Plus Character--that Is The Goal Of True Education. The Complete Education Gives One Not Only Power Of Concentration, But Worthy Objectives Upon Which To Concentrate. The Broad Education Will, Therefore, Transmit To One Not Only The Accumulated Knowledge Of The Race But Also The Accumulated Experience Of Social Living. If We Are Not Careful, Our Colleges Will Produce A Group Of Close-minded, Unscientific, Illogical Propagandists, Consumed With Immoral Acts. Be Careful, Brethren! Be Careful, Teachers!
Teacher
Character
College
The Non-violent Resistor Not Only Avoids External, Physical Violence, But He Avoids Internal Violence Of Spirit. He Not Only Refuses To Shoot His Opponent, But He Refuses To Hate Him. And He Stands With Understanding, Goodwill At All Times.
Hate
Understanding
Opponents
The Whole World Must See That Israel Must Exist And Has The Right To Exist, And Is One Of The Great Outposts Of Democracy In The World.
Israel
Mind Blowing
Democracy
Every Word And Deed Must Contribute To An Understanding With The Enemy And Release Those Vast Reservoirs Of Goodwill Which Have Been Blocked By Impenetrable Walls Of Hate.
Wall
Hate
Understanding
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.
Philosophy
Justice
Quests
The Day We See The Truth And Cease To Speak Is The Day We Begin To Die
Inspirational
Civil Rights
Speak
We Must Combine The Toughness Of The Serpent With The Softness Of The Dove, A Tough Mind And A Tender Heart.
Heart
Mind
Tough
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.
Educational
Persistence
Hands
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.
Dark
Power
Night
Jazz Speaks For Life. The Blues Tell The Story Of Life's Difficulties, And If You Think For A Moment, You Will Realize That They Take The Hardest Realities Of Life And Put Them Into Music, Only To Come Out With Some New Hope Or Sense Of Triumph.
Reality
Thinking
Triumph
We All Have The Drum Major Instinct. We All Want To Be Important, To Surpass Others, To Achieve Distinction, To Lead The Parade.
Important
Want
Achieve
Education Without Morals Is Like A Ship Without A Compass, Merely Wandering Nowhere.
Ships
Moral
Compass
We Are Out To Defeat Injustice And Not White Persons Who May Be Unjust.
White
Unjust
May
We Will Have To Repent In This Generation Not Merely For The Vitriolic Words And Actions Of The Bad People, But For The Appalling Silence Of The Good People.
Integrity
Anger
Character
Science Deals Mainly With Facts; Religion Deals Mainly With Values. The Two Are Not Rivals. They Are Complementary.
Two
Rivals
Facts
I Could Never Again Raise My Voice Against The Violence Of The Oppressed, Without Having First Spoken Clearly To The Greatest Purveyor Of Violence In The World Today – My Own Government.
Government
Voice
Violence
In A Real Sense All Life Is Inter-related. All Men Are Caught In An Inescapable Network Of Mutuality, Tied In A Single Garment Of Destiny. Whatever Affects One Directly, Affects All Indirectly. I Can Never Be What I Ought To Be Until You Are What You Ought To Be, And You Can Never Be What You Ought To Be Until I Am What I Ought To Be... This Is The Inter-related Structure Of Reality.
Real
Destiny
Men
A Genuine Leader Is Not A Searcher For Consensus But A Molder Of Consensus.
Inspirational
Inspiring
Leadership
We Must Learn That To Expect God To Do Everything While We Do Nothing Is Not Faith But Superstition.
Superstitions
Truth Is Found Neither In Marxism Nor In Traditional Capitalism. Each Represents A Partial Truth. Historically Capitalism Failed To See The Truth In Collective Enterprise, And Marxism Failed To See The Truth In Individual Enterprise. Nineteenth Century Capitalism Failed To See That Life Is Social And Marxism Failed And Still Fails To See That Life Is Individual And Personal. The Kingdom Of God Is Neither The Thesis Of Individual Enterprise Nor The Antithesis Of Collective Enterprise, But A Synthesis Which Reconciles The Truths Of Both.
Wisdom
Synthesis
Kingdoms
Courage Is The Power Of The Mind To Overcome Fear.
Courage
Fear
Mind
The Ultimate Weakness Of Violence Is That It Is A Descending Spiral, Begetting The Very Thing It Seeks To Destroy... In Fact, Violence Merely Increases Hate. So It Goes. Returning Violence For Violence Multiplies Violence, Adding Deeper Darkness To A Night Already Devoid Of Stars.
Stars
Kings
Hate
A Nation That Will Keep People In Slavery For 244 Years Will "thingify" Them And Make Them Things. And Therefore, They Will Exploit Them And Poor People Generally Economically. And A Nation That Will Exploit Economically Will Have To Have Foreign Investments And Everything Else, And It Will Have To Use Its Military Might To Protect Them. All Of These Problems Are Tied Together. What I'm Saying Today Is That We Must Go From This Convention And Say, "america, You Must Be Born Again!"
Wisdom
Military
Years
Of All The Forms Of Inequality, Injustice In Health Care Is The Most Shocking And Inhumane.
Inspirational
Kings
Health
Millions Of Citizens Are Deeply Disturbed That The Military-industrial Complex Too Often Shapes National Policy, But They Do Not Want To Be Considered Unpatriotic.
Military
Citizens
Shapes
All Labor That Uplifts Humanity Has Dignity And Importance And Should Be Undertaken With Painstaking Excellence.
Uplifting
Work
Teaching
We Cannot Walk Alone.
Walks
One Day We Will Learn That The Heart Can Never Be Totally Right If The Head Is Totally Wrong. Only Through The Bringing Together Of Head And Heart-intelligence And Goodness-shall Man Rise To A Fulfillment Of His True Nature.
Heart
Men
One Day
Most Of These People Will Never Make The Headlines And Their Names Will Not Appear In Who's Who. Yet When Years Have Rolled Past And When The Blazing Light Of Truth Is Focused On This Marvelous Age In Which We Live - Men And Women Will Know And Children Will Be Taught That We Have A Finer Land, A Better People, A More Noble Civilization - Because These Humble Children Of God Were Willing To Suffer For Righteousness' Sake.
Children
Humble
Past
The Beauty Of Genuine Brotherhood And Peace Is More Precious Than Diamonds Or Silver Or Gold.
Brotherhood
Gold
Silver
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.
Inspirational
Motivational
Inspiring
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.
Inspirational
Men
World
This Is The Unusual Thing About Nonviolence -- Nobody Is Defeated, Everybody Shares In The Victory.
Unusual Things
Victory
Defeated
I Became Convinced That Noncooperation With Evil Is As Much A Moral Obligation As Is Cooperation With Good. No Other Person Has Been More Eloquent And Passionate In Getting This Idea Across Than Henry David Thoreau. As A Result Of His Writings And Personal Witness, We Are The Heirs Of A Legacy Of Creative Protest.
Writing
Ideas
Evil
One Day We Will Learn That The Heart Can Never Be Totally Right When The Head Is Totally Wrong
Heart
One Day
And So We Shall Have To Do More Than Register And More Than Vote; We Shall Have To Create Leaders Who Embody Virtues We Can Respect, Who Have Moral And Ethical Principles We Can Applaud With Enthusiasm.
Ethical Principles
Leader
Enthusiasm
The Self Cannot Be Self Without Other Selves.
Self
There May Come A Time When It Will Be Possible For You To Humiliate Your Worst Enemy Or Even To Defeat Him, But In Order To Love The Enemy You Must Not Do It... The Greek Language Has Another Word [for Love]. It Calls It Agape. Agape Is More Than Romantic Love. Agape Is More Than Friendship. Agape Is Understanding, Redemptive Goodwill For All Men. Agape Is An Overflowing Love, A Spontaneous Love, Which Seeks Nothing In Return. And Theologians Would Say That It Is The Love Of God Operating In The Human Heart. When You Rise To Love On This Level You Love All Men, Not Because You Like Them, Not Because Their Ways Appeal To You, Not Because They Are Worthful To You, But You Love All Men Because God Loves Them. And You Rise To The Noble Heights Of Loving The Person Who Does The Evil Deed While Hating The Deed That The Person Does. And I Think This Is What Jesus Means When He Says, “love Your Enemies.”
Life
Jesus
Hate
America Must Begin The Struggle For Democracy At Home. The Advocacy Of Free Elections In Europe By American Officials Is Hypocrisy When Free Elections Are Not Held In Great Sections Of America.
Struggle
Home
Europe
It's Not How Long A Man Lives, But How Well He Uses The Time Allotted Him.
Men
Long
Use
We Aren't Going To Have Peace On Earth Until We Recognize The Basic Fact Of The Interrelated Structure Of All Reality.
Reality
Earth
Eating Breakfast
Justice Is Love Correcting That Which Revolts Against Love.
Justice
Revolt
Correcting
We In The West Must Bear In Mind That The Poor Countries Are Poor Primarily Because We Have Exploited Them Through Political Or Economic Colonialism.
Country
Political
Mind
The Curse Of Poverty Has No Justification In Our Age.
Age
Poverty
Curse
Black Power Alone Is No More Insurance Against Social Injustice Than White Power.
White
Black
Injustice
I Feel That Non-violence Is Really The Only Way That We Can Follow Because Violence Is Just So Self-defeating. A Riot Ends Up Creating Many More Problems For The Negro Community Than It Solved. We Can Through Violence Burn Down A Building, But You Can't Establish Justice. You Can Murder A Murderer, But You Can't Murder Murder Through Violence. You Can Murder A Hater, But You Can't Murder Hate. And What We're Trying To Get Rid Of Is Hate, Injustice, And All Of These Other Things That Continue The Long Night Of Man's Inhumanity To Man.
Hate
Night
Men
As Long As The Mind Is Enslaved, The Body Can Never Be Free.
Long
Mind
Body
Violence Is Not The Way.
Inspirational
Way
Violence
One Has A Moral Responsibility To Disobey Unjust Laws.
Inspirational
Religious
Responsibility
Stand Up For Justice, Stand Up For Truth; And God Will Be At Your Side Forever.
Your Side
Justice
Forever
This Is No Time To Engage In The Luxury Of Cooling Off Or To Take The Tranquilizing Drug Of Gradualism.
Luxury
Drug
I Have A Dream Speech
Unarmed Love Is The Most Powerful Force In All The World.
Powerful
Love Is
World
You Can’t Reach Good Ends Through Evil Means, Because The Means Represent The Seed And The End Represents The Tree.
Mean
Evil
Tree
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?
Beautiful
Brother
Struggle
Cowardice Is Submissive Surrender To Circumstances.
Submissive
Surrender
Cowardice
Not Everybody Can Be Famous But Everybody Can Be Great, Because Greatness Is Determined By Service.
Greatness
Determined
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.
Inspirational
Criticism
Would Be
A True Revolution Of Values Will Soon Cause Us To Question The Fairness And Justice Of Many Of Our Present Policies.
Justice
Breaking Silence
Revolution
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.
Strong
Humble
Men
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.
Inspirational
Brother
Yoga
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.
Struggle
Destiny
Men
We Must Come To See With The Distinguished Jurist Of Yesterday That "justice Too Long Delayed Is Justice Denied."
Inspirational
Yesterday
Long
If A Man Hasn't Discovered Something That He Will Die For, He Isn't Fit To Live.
Inspirational
Death
Faith
We Must See The Great Distinction Between A Reform Movement And A Revolutionary Movement. We Are Called Upon To Raise Certain Basic Questions About The Whole Society . . . . What America Must Be Told Today Is That She Must Be Born Again. The Whole Structure Of American Life Must Be Changed.
America
Reform
Movement
The Ultimate Measure Of A Man Is Not Where He Stands In Moments Of Comfort And Convenience, But Where He Stands In Times Of Challenge And Controversy. The True Neighbor Will Risk His Position, His Prestige, And Even His Life For The Welfare Of Others. In Dangerous Valleys And Hazardous Pathways, He Will Lift Some Bruised And Beaten Brother To A Higher And More Noble Life.
Brother
Men
Challenges
We Stand In Life At Midnight; We Are Always At The Threshold Of A New Dawn.
Hope
Dawn
Midnight
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.
Freedom
Destiny
America
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