Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was one of the most powerful voices of the Civil Rights Movement. More than a half century has passed since he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, at only age 39, but his words still resonate today as much as they did then. Throughout his lifetime, he had a lot to say about justice, love, leadership, service, equality, freedom, and the hope for (and struggle for) change. Here, we have gathered some of the most famous MLK quotes on those topics.
Of course, much insight is gained from reading King’s speeches and writings in their full context, from his unforgettable “I Have a Dream” speech at the 1963 March on Washington, to his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” to his Nobel Prize Winner’s 1967 address, and many others. (For further reading, you can find many of his speeches online, visit your local library, or invest in a volume for your bookshelf.) But revisiting some of his most poignant quotes can help us remember and reflect on what he taught us.
With MLK Day coming up on the third Monday in January (it’s the 15th, his actual birthday, this year), as well as Black History Month this February, you might be searching for quotes to post in commemoration or perhaps to read in quiet reflection. Or maybe you just need a dose of hope or inspiration—after all, you don’t need a special day to be grateful for Dr. King’s legacy. These 57 quotes will help you keep his message close to your heart and top of mind.
Famous MLK Quotes
Agence France Presse
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
“Forgiveness is not an occasional act. It is a permanent attitude.”
“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” [from the recollection of Marian Wright Edelman]
“With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.”
“A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.”
“The beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.
Stephen F. Somerstein
MLK Quotes About Justice
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
“True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.”
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
“The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.”
Dozier Mobley
“We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
“Whenever you take a stand for truth and justice, you are liable to scorn.”
“We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.”
“I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men.”
MLK Quotes About Love
Stephen F. Somerstein
“I think I have discovered the highest good. It is love.”
“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
“In some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.”
“He who hates does not know God, but he who loves has the key that unlocks the door to the meaning of ultimate reality.”
“When I talk about love … I am not talking about emotional bosh. I am not talking about some sentimental or even some affectionate emotion. I am talking about something much deeper.”
On the Greek concept of “agape,” the highest of the three forms of love:
“It is an overflowing love, which seeks nothing in return. Theologians would say that it is the love of God operating in the human heart. And when one rises to love on this level, he is able to love the person who does the evil deed, while hating the deed that the person does.”
MLK Quotes on Leadership and Service
Don Uhrbrock
“The time is always ripe to do right.”
“A genuine leader is not a succor for consensus but a mold of consensus.”
“Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. … You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
“I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, other-centered men can build up.”
“We all have the drum major instinct. We all want to be important, to surpass others, to achieve distinction, to lead the parade. … And the great issue of life is to harness the drum major instinct. It is a good instinct if you don’t distort it and pervert it. Don’t give it up. Keep feeling the need for being important. Keep feeling the need for being first. But I want you to be the first in love. I want you to be the first in moral excellence. I want you to be the first in generosity.”
“Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a better person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in.”
MLK Quotes About Character
Michael Ochs Archives
“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”
“We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.”
“Non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.”
“Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ Vanity asks the question, ‘Is it popular?’ But Conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’
MLK Quotes About Life
Michael Ochs Archives
“I submit to you that if a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.”
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’ ”
“A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.”
“If any of you are around when I have to meet my day … I’d like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody.”
“Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.”
“Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land.”
MLK Quotes About the Hope and Struggle for Change
Central Press
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
“When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of a genuine civilization struggling to be born.”
“Let us rise up tonight with greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation.”
“Nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation.”
“I refuse to accept the idea that the ‘isness’ of man’s present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal ‘oughtness’ that forever confronts him.”
“It may be true that morality cannot be legislated but behavior can be regulated. It maybe true that the law cannot change the heart but it can restrain the heartless.”
“Time is neutral, it can be used either constructively or destructively.”
“Somewhere we must come to see that human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability.”
“In the long run of history, destructive means cannot bring about constructive ends.”
“The guardians of the status quo are always on hand with their oxygen tents to keep the old order alive.”
“We have come a long, long way, but we have a long, long way to go.”
Santi Visalli
MLK Quote About Equality and Freedom
“Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.”
“When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.”
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
“I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.”
Michael Evans/Hulton Archive
“I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”
“When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
