Quotes about Struggle
In a world facing the revolt of ragged and hungry masses of God's children; in a world torn between the tensions of East and West, white and colored, individuals and collectivists; in a world whose cultural and spiritual power lags so far behind her technological capabilities that we live each day on the verge of nuclear co-annihilation; in this world, nonviolence is no longer an option for intellectual analysis, it is an imperative for action
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
If] a man doesn't have a job or an income, he has neither life nor liberty nor the possibility for the pursuit of happiness. He merely exists.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Freedom is not won by a passive acceptance of suffering. Freedom is won by a struggle against suffering. By this measure, Negroes have not yet paid the full price for freedom. And whites have not yet faced the full cost of justice.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
When I took up the cross I recognized it's meaning. The cross is something that you bear, and ultimately, that you die on.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
We ain't what we oughta be. We ain't what we want to be. We ain't what we gonna be. But, thank God, we ain't what we was.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Nothing worthwhile is gained without sacrifice.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Whatever I was, I owed to my family and to all those who struggled with me. But my biggest debt I owed to my wife. She was the one who gave my life meaning. All I could pledge to her, and to all those millions, was that I would do all I could to justify the faith that she, and they, had in me. I would try more than ever to make my life one of which she, and they, could be proud. I would do in private that which I knew my public responsibility demanded.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Human beings with all their faults and strengths constitute the mechanism of a social movement. They must make mistakes and learn from them, make more mistakes and learn anew. They must taste defeat as well as success, and discover how to live with each. Time and action are the teachers.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The urge for freedom will eventually come. This is what has happened to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom; something without has reminded him that he can gain it.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
The slaveholders of America had devised with almost scientific precision their systems for keeping the Negro defenseless, emotionally and physically.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.