The more there are riots, the more repressive action will take place, and the more we face the danger of a right-wing takeover and eventually a fascist society. Martin Luther King
The only weapon that we have in our hands this evening is the weapon of protest. That’s all. Martin Luther King, Montgomery Bus Boycott Speech 1955
The question is not whether we will be extremists but what kind of extremists we will be. Martin Luther King
The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people, but the silence over that by the good people. Martin Luther King
There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth. Martin Luther King
There is the danger that you will misuse your Capitalism. I still contend that money can be the root of all evil. It can cause one to live a life of gross materialism. I am afraid that many among you are more concerned about making a living than making a life. Martin Luther King, address Dexter Avenue Baptist Church 4th November 1956
The time has come for an all-out world 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’. Martin Luther King
The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate ... 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. Martin Luther King
The world now demands the maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit and we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventures in Vietnam that we have been detrimental to the lives of the Vietnamese people. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn softly from our present ways. The New Testament says, Repent. It is time for America to repent now. For the Kingdom of God is at hand. Martin Luther King
To accept passively an unjust system is to cooperate with that system; thereby the oppressed become as evil as the oppressor. Non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. The oppressed must never allow the conscience of the oppressor to slumber. Martin Luther King
True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice. Martin Luther King, variations, cited A Martin Luther King Treasury 1964
Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones. Violence is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding: it seeks to annihilate rather than convert. 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 up defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. Martin Luther King
Wars are poor chisels for carrying out peaceful tomorrows. Martin Luther King
We do have common problems and common concerns. And above all, as Muhammad Ali has just said, we are all victims of the same system of oppression. And even though we may have different religious beliefs, this does not at all bring about a difference in terms of our concerns. Martin Luther King
Well I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountain top. And I don’t mind. Like anybody I would like to live a long life, longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He has allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. 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.’ Martin Luther King, final speech
We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. Martin Luther King
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. Martin Luther King
We must discover the power of love, the power, the redemptive power of love. And when we discover that we will be able to make of this old world a new world. We will be able to make men better. Love is the only way. Martin Luther King
We must learn to live together as brothers or we are going to perish together as fools. Martin Luther King, speech 22nd March 1964
We must substitute courage for caution. Martin Luther King
We must work passionately and unrelentingly for the goal of freedom, but we must be sure that our hands are clean in the struggle. We must never struggle with falsehood, hate, or malice. We must never become bitter. I know how we feel sometime. There is the danger that those of us who have been forced so long to stand amid the tragic midnight of oppression – those of us who have been trampled over, those of us who have been kicked about – there is the danger that we will become bitter. But if we will become bitter and indulge in hate campaigns, the new order which is emerging will be nothing but a duplication of the old order. Martin Luther King, Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom 17th May 1957
We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering with our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. Throw us in jail, and we shall still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. Martin Luther King, essay Loving Your Enemies, cited John Lewis: Good Trouble, Sky Documentaries 2020
We’ve got to rise up. We’ve got to organise. We’ve got to mobilise. And we’ve got to work to solve these problems. Martin Luther King, speech cited All Power to the People: The Black Panther Party & Beyond
We were all involved in the death of John Kennedy. We tolerated hate; we tolerated the sick stimulation of violence in all walks of life; and we tolerated the differential application of law, which said that a man’s life was sacred only if we agreed with his views. This may explain the cascading grief that flooded the country in late November. We mourned a man who had become the pride of the nation, but we grieved as well for ourselves because we knew we were sick. Martin Luther King, Why We Can’t Wait
You know, my friends, there comes a time when people get tired of being trampled by the iron feet of oppression. There comes a time, my friends, when people get tired of being plunged across the abyss of humiliation, where they experience the bleakness of nagging despair. There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November. There comes a time. Martin Luther King, Montgomery Bus Boycott speech December 1955
Martin Luther King’s 1963 address was a beacon of hope across the globe. David Harewood, Get on Up: The Triumph of Black America, BBC 2023