Quotes from 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.
We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
The day we see the truth and cease to speak is the day we begin to die
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation. Not merely for the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say, Wait on time.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
There is no gain without struggle.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Quietly endure, silently suffer and patiently wait.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tired into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one destiny, affects all indirectly.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
A right delayed is a right denied.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.