When you are right, you cannot be too radical; When you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.

The only weapon that we have in our hands this evening is the weapon of protest. That's all.

Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.

This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

The Universe is on the side of Justice

I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. I have tried to make clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends.

A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right.

The time is always right, to do what's right.

One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that ' an unjust law is no law at all.

Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. 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. And that's all I want to say.

Justice too long delayed is justice denied.