Quotes about Empowerment
We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
It's all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can't ride your back unless it is bent
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
There is nothing more dangerous than to build a society with a large segment of people in that society who feel that they have no stake in it; who feel that that have nothing to lose. People who have stake in their society, protect that society, but when they don't have it, they unconsciously want to destroy it.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
I said to my children, 'I'm going to work and do everything that I can do to see that you get a good education. I don't ever want you to forget that there are millions of God's children who will not and cannot get a good education, and I don't want you feeling that you are better than they are. For you will never be what you ought to be until they are what they ought to be.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
One of the greatest problems of history is that the concepts of love and power are usually contrasted as polar opposites. Love is identified with a resignation of power and power with a denial of love. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Christ furnished the spirit and motivation while Gandhi furnished the method.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Everyone has the power for greatness, not for fame but greatness, because greatness is determined by service.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. It is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.