M L King Jr Quotes & Sayings

But lost in that sea of (valid) criticism is the perhaps subtler critique that in an age of consumerism, economic imperialism and what Martin Luther King Jr. called "jumboism," the sacrificial way of Jesus may be calling us to forsake the supersized life. — C. Christopher Smith

Your self-sacrificin g devotion to your purpose in life and your unwavering faith will carry you through times of difficulty. — Martin Luther King Jr.

I was much more afraid in Montgomery when I had a gun in my house. When I decided that I couldn't keep a gun, I came face-to-face with the question of death and I dealt with it. From that point on, I no longer needed a gun nor have I been afraid. Had we become distracted by the question of my safety we would have lost the moral offensive and sunk to the level of our oppressors. — Martin Luther King Jr.

Faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. — Martin Luther King Jr.

The most dangerous type of atheism is not theoretical atheism, but practical atheism -that's the most dangerous type. And the world, even the church, is filled up with people who pay lip service to God and not life service. And there is always a danger that we will make it appear externally that we believe in God when internally we don't. We say with our mouths that we believe in him, but we live with our lives like he never existed. That is the ever-present danger confronting religion. That's a dangerous type of atheism. — Martin Luther King Jr.

A woman can have a smile, and a woman can have a large backside, but I have been to the mountain and I am here to tell you that when a woman has both of those things she is not to be trusted. — Martin Luther King Jr.

I must face the fact, as all others in positions of leadership must do, that America today is an extremely sick nation, and that something could well happen to me at any time. I feel, though, that my cause is so right, so moral, that if I should lose my life, in some way it would aid the cause. — Martin Luther King Jr.

[E]very human life is a reflection of divinity, and ... every act of injustice mars and defaces the image of God in man. — Martin Luther King Jr.

Racial segregation must be seen for what it is, and that is an evil system, a new form of slavery covered up with certain niceties of complexity. — Martin Luther King Jr.

Lord help me to see M. L. King as M. L. King in his true perspective. — Martin Luther King Jr.

And when you discover what you will be in your life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it. Don't just set out to do a good job. — Martin Luther King Jr.

I would suffer all the humiliation, all the torture, the absolute ostracism and even death, to prevent violence — Martin Luther King Jr.

Had it not been for the ministry of my good friend Dr. Billy Graham, my work in the civil rights movement would not have been as successful as it has been. — Martin Luther King Jr.

Stand up for justice, stand up for truth; and God will be at your side forever. — Martin Luther King Jr.

It is cheerful to God when you rejoice or laugh from the bottom of your heart. — Martin Luther King Jr.

By its very nature, hate destroys and tears down; by its very nature, love creates and builds up. — Martin Luther King Jr.

It may sound strange, but I get the inspiration for most of my Dreams while I'm sleeping. — Mark W. Boyer

If you can't run then walk If you can't walk then crawl but whatever you do don't give up — Martin Luther King Jr.

We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to mankind. — Martin Luther King Jr.

When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. — Martin Luther King Jr.

Christianity has always insisted that the cross we bear always precedes the crown we wear. — Martin Luther King Jr.

Freedom is one thing. You have it all or you are not free. — Martin Luther King Jr.

But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars. — Martin Luther King Jr.

Since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity. — Martin Luther King Jr.

Evil must be attacked by ... the day to day assault of the battering rams of justice. — Martin Luther King Jr.

Violence is anything that denies human integrity, and leads to hopelessness and helplessness. — Martin Luther King Jr.

Many people fear nothing more terribly than to take a position which stands out sharply and clearly from the prevailing opinion. The tendency of most is to adopt a view that is so ambiguous that it will include everything and so popular that it will include everybody. Not a few men who cherish lofty and noble ideals hide them under a bushel for fear of being called different. — Martin Luther King Jr.

[Martin Luther King, Jr.] concluded the learned discourse that came to be known as the 'loving your enemies' sermon this way: 'So this morning, as I look into your eyes and into the eyes of all my brothers in Alabama and all over America and over the world, I say to you,'I love you. I would rather die than hate you.'
Go ahead and reread that. That is hands down the most beautiful, strange, impossible, but most of all radical thing a human being can say. And it comes from reading the most beautiful, strange, impossible, but most of all radical civics lesson ever taught, when Jesus of Nazareth went to a hill in Galilee and told his disciples, 'Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you. — Sarah Vowell

There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right. — Martin Luther King Jr.

It's soul force that removed the English from India. It's soul force that brought down the Berlin Wall. It's soul force that gave life to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s struggle for civil rights. — Marianne Williamson

Hate is too big of burden to bear. I have decided to love. — Martin Luther King Jr.

Capital punishment is against the best judgment of modern criminology and, above all, against the highest expression of love in the nature of God. — Martin Luther King Jr.