Inspirational Martin Luther King Quotes
Dr Martin Luther King Jr was a leading Civil Rights campaigner. He led the US Civil rights movement and was an advocate for non-violent protest.
In 1963 he led the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom where he delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech which included the line:
“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.”
The inspirational Martin Luther King quotes below include some of his most famous quotes.
Our 6 Favourite Martin Luther King quotes
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
The time is always right to do what is right.
If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.
If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.
Sometimes it’s necessary to go backward in order to go forward. Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.
Martin Luther King quotes on equality / living together
People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other
We must either learn to live together as brothers or we are all going to perish together as fools.
I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
Martin Luther King quotes on love
That old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind.
I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.
Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.
We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends
There’s another reason why you should love your enemies, and that is because hate distorts the personality of the hater.
Martin Luther King quotes on war
Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.
Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.
It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence; it is either nonviolence or nonexistence.
Martin Luther King quotes on death
The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important.
No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they’d die for.
Martin Luther King will always be remembered alongside his fellow civil rights activist Malcolm X who was subject to numerous death threats.
Dr. King said in a telegram to Betty Shabazz after the murder of her husband,
“I always had a deep affection for Malcolm and felt that he had a great ability to put his finger on the existence and the root of the problem. He was an eloquent spokesman for his point of view and no one can honestly doubt that Malcolm had a great concern for the problems we face as a race.”
Having survived an attempt on his life in 1958, Dr Martin Luther King was just 39 years old when he was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
In his final speech before his death, he included the unforgettable quote, “I have been to the mountain top… I’ve seen the Promised Land….Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
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