Sourced and curated.

I Have a Dream · 1963

★ 9.9

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and 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.

I Have a Dream · 1963

★ 8.6

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

Letter from Birmingham Jail · 1963

★ 8.6

I have also decided to stick with love...hate is too great a burden to bear.

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

Where Do We Go From Here? · 1967

★ 8.5

1967

★ 8.0

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.

I Have a Dream · 1963

★ 7.3

When we allow freedom to 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!"

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

I Have a Dream · 1963

★ 7.3

Sermon

1968

★ 7.1

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail · 1963

★ 6.5

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.

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.

1956

★ 6.2

1958

★ 6.2

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.

Letter from Birmingham Jail · 1963

★ 5.5

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.

I Have a Dream · 1963

★ 5.5

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.

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."

I've Been to the Mountaintop · 1968

★ 5.5

Sermon

1967

★ 5.4

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.

I See the Promised Land · 1968

★ 5.4

"Wait" has almost always meant "Never."

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.

Letter from Birmingham Jail · 1963

★ 4.0

Open letter · Letter · Political literature

Letter from Birmingham Jail · 1963

★ 3.9

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.

Letter from Birmingham Jail · 1963

★ 3.9

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

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.

Letter from Birmingham Jail · 1963

★ 3.9

Nobel Prize Lecture · Speech

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.

1964

★ 3.8

Sermon

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.

1961

★ 3.7

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.

Strength to Love · 1963

★ 3.7

Nobel Prize Lecture · Speech

1964

★ 3.7

Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless.

The Ethical Demands for Integration · 1962

★ 2.1

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