Quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr.
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.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
To have serpentlike qualities devoid of dovelike qualities is to be passionless, mean, and selfish.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular hometown.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
We had no alternative except that of preparing for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and national community.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
If I lived in a Communist country today where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I believe I would openly advocate disobeying these anti-religious laws.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
The contemporary church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Nonviolence is an imperative in order to bring about ultimate community.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
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.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Violence is not the way.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
We were not unmindful of the difficulties involved. So we decided to go through a process of self-purification.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.