Quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr.

Science investigates, religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power, religion gives man wisdom which is control. Science deals mainly with facts, religion deals with values. The two are not rivals. They are complementary. Science keeps religion from sinking into the valley of crippling irrationalism and paralysing obscurantism. Religion prevents science from falling into the marsh of obsolete materialism and moral nihilism.

A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.

When you are right, you cannot be too radical; When you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.

The only weapon that we have in our hands this evening is the weapon of protest. That's all.

If a man hasn't found something he will die for, he isn't fit to live.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence.

Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.

This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture of their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build up I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive goodwill will proclaim the rule of the land.

Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.

Right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.