Quotes · Skopia

26 quotes

The Ethical Demands for Integration · 1962

★ 2.1

Speech

If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

1963

★ 2.1

Sermon

The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided man.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

1961

★ 3.7

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Strength to Love · 1963

★ 3.7

Nobel Prize Lecture · Speech

I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

1964

★ 3.7

Nobel Prize Lecture · Speech

Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

1964

★ 3.8

Open letter · Letter · Political literature

There are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Letter from Birmingham Jail · 1963

★ 3.9

Open letter · Letter

The Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Councillor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Letter from Birmingham Jail · 1963

★ 3.9

Open letter · Letter

We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Letter from Birmingham Jail · 1963

★ 3.9

Open letter · Letter

"Wait" has almost always meant "Never."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Letter from Birmingham Jail · 1963

★ 4.0

Sermon

Even if it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, go on out and sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures; sweep streets like Handel and Beethoven composed music; sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry; (Go ahead) sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say, "Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

1967

★ 5.4

Speech

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. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. And I'm happy tonight, I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

I See the Promised Land · 1968

★ 5.4

Open letter · Letter

I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Letter from Birmingham Jail · 1963

★ 5.5

Speech · Political speech

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

I Have a Dream · 1963

★ 5.5

Speech · Political speech

The nation is sick, trouble is in the land, confusion all around... But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

I've Been to the Mountaintop · 1968

★ 5.5

Speech · Political speech

It is both historically and biologically true that there can be no birth and growth without birth and growing pains. Whenever there is the emergence of the new we confront the recalcitrance of the old. So the tensions which we witness in the world today are indicative of the fact that a new world order is being born and an old order is passing away.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

1956

★ 6.2

Government action is not the whole answer to the present crisis, but it is an important partial answer. Morals cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. The law cannot make an employer love me, but it can keep him from refusing to hire me because of the color of my skin.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

1958

★ 6.2

Open letter · Letter

One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Letter from Birmingham Jail · 1963

★ 6.5

Sermon

We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

1968

★ 7.1

Speech · Political speech

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... America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

I Have a Dream · 1963

★ 7.3

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