Quotes about Ethics
There are two types of laws, those that are just and those that are unjust. A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law...Any law that uplifts the human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
What matters is not how long you live…but how you live.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
One day we will learn that the heart can never be totally right if the head is totally wrong. Only through the bringing together of head and heart—intelligence and goodness—shall man rise to a fulfillment of his true nature.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" And Vanity comes along and asks the question, "Is it popular?" But Conscience asks the question, "Is it right?" And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
the question is not whether we will be extremist, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate, or will we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice, or will we be extremists for the cause of justice?
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
When religion becomes so involved in a future good over yonder that it forgets the present evils over here it is as dry as dust religion and needs to be condemned.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Be sure that the means you employ are as pure as the end you seek.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
It is pretty difficult to imagine a single person having, simultaneously, the characteristics of the serpent and the dove, but this is what Jesus expects. We must combine the toughness of the serpent and the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" And Vanity comes along and asks the question, "Is it popular?" But Conscience asks the question, "Is it right?
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.