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Civil rights8 quotes
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. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1963When 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. · 1963We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1968Government 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. · 1958Like 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. · 1968"Wait" has almost always meant "Never." — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1963All 8 quotes →American politics5 quotes
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. · 1963The 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. · 1963This is a circus. It's a national disgrace. And from my standpoint as a black American, as far as I'm concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves. — Clarence Thomas · 1991We recall in special times when we have stood briefly, but magnificently, united. In those times no prize was beyond our grasp. — Jimmy Carter · 1977Our Nation can be strong abroad only if it is strong at home. And we know that the best way to enhance freedom in other lands is to demonstrate here that our democratic system is worthy of emulation. — Jimmy Carter · 1977World War I5 quotes
America cannot be an ostrich with its head in the sand. — Woodrow Wilson · 1916We have stood apart, studiously neutral. — Woodrow Wilson · 1915Once lead this people into war and they will forget there ever was such a thing as tolerance. — Woodrow Wilson · 1917The day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured. — Woodrow Wilson · 1917The United States must be neutral in fact as well as in name. — Woodrow Wilson · 1914Progress4 quotes
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. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1963We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1968"Wait" has almost always meant "Never." — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1963The 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. · 1961America and the world3 quotes
The world must be made safe for democracy. — Woodrow Wilson · 1917America cannot be an ostrich with its head in the sand. — Woodrow Wilson · 1916We realize that the greatest things that remain to be done must be done with the whole world for stage and in cooperation with the wide and universal forces of mankind, and we are making our spirits ready for those things. — Woodrow Wilson · 1917Change3 quotes
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. · 1956There can be no equality or opportunity, the first essential of justice in the body politic, if men and women and children be not shielded in their lives, their very vitality, from the consequences of great industrial and social processes which they can not alter, control, or singly cope with. — Woodrow Wilson · 1913We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles. — Jimmy Carter · 1977Civil disobedience3 quotes
One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1963I 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. · 1963There 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. · 1963International politics3 quotes
The world must be made safe for democracy. — Woodrow Wilson · 1917No nation is fit to sit in judgment upon any other nation. — Woodrow Wilson · 1915A general association of nations must be formed... For the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike. — Woodrow Wilson · 1918America2 quotes
We have the heaviest concentration of lawyers on Earth-1 for every 500 Americans, three times as many as are in England, four times as many as are in West Germany, twenty-one times as many as are in West Germany, twenty-one times as many as there are in Japan. We have more litigation, but I am not sure that we have more justice. No resources of talent and training in our own society, even including the medical care, is more wastefully or unfairly distributed than legal skills. Ninety percent of our lawyer serves 10 percent of our people. We are over-lawyered and under-represented. — Jimmy Carter · 1978Our Nation can be strong abroad only if it is strong at home. And we know that the best way to enhance freedom in other lands is to demonstrate here that our democratic system is worthy of emulation. — Jimmy Carter · 1977Breaking the law2 quotes
One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1963I 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. · 1963Downsides of progress2 quotes
We have been proud of our industrial achievements, but we have not hitherto stopped thoughtfully enough to count the human cost, the cost of lives snuffed out, of energies overtaxed and broken, the fearful physical and spiritual cost to the men and women and children upon whom the dead weight and burden of it all has fallen pitilessly the years through. — Woodrow Wilson · 1913There has been something crude and heartless and unfeeling in our haste to succeed and be great. Our thought has been "Let every man look out for himself, let every generation look out for itself," while we reared giant machinery which made it impossible that any but those who stood at the levers of control should have a chance to look out for themselves. — Woodrow Wilson · 1913Economic development2 quotes
We have been proud of our industrial achievements, but we have not hitherto stopped thoughtfully enough to count the human cost, the cost of lives snuffed out, of energies overtaxed and broken, the fearful physical and spiritual cost to the men and women and children upon whom the dead weight and burden of it all has fallen pitilessly the years through. — Woodrow Wilson · 1913There has been something crude and heartless and unfeeling in our haste to succeed and be great. Our thought has been "Let every man look out for himself, let every generation look out for itself," while we reared giant machinery which made it impossible that any but those who stood at the levers of control should have a chance to look out for themselves. — Woodrow Wilson · 1913Equality2 quotes
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. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1963When 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!" — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1963Fighting injustice2 quotes
One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1963I 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. · 1963Foreign policy2 quotes
No nation is fit to sit in judgment upon any other nation. — Woodrow Wilson · 1915The United States must be neutral in fact as well as in name. — Woodrow Wilson · 1914Justice2 quotes
We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1968There 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. · 1963Law2 quotes
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. · 1963Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1962Legality and morality2 quotes
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. · 1958We 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. · 1963Love2 quotes
I have also decided to stick with love...hate is too great a burden to bear. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1967I thought love would adapt itself to my needs.
But needs grow too fast.
They come up like weeds.
Through cracks in the conversation.
Through silences in the dark.
Through everything you thought was concrete. — Alice Walker · 1979Moral progress2 quotes
We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1968The 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. · 1961Political progress2 quotes
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. · 1968"Wait" has almost always meant "Never." — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1963Political reconciliation2 quotes
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. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1963I 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. · 1963Politics2 quotes
A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1967"Wait" has almost always meant "Never." — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1963Racial equality2 quotes
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. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1963I 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. · 1963Activism1 quote
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. · 1964Advice1 quote
Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97: Wear sunscreen. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now...But trust me on the sunscreen. — Mary Schmich · 1997Affirmative action1 quote
Affirmative action really isn't about preferential treatment for blacks, but about removing preferential treatment whites have received through history. — Julian Bond · 1998America as example1 quote
Our Nation can be strong abroad only if it is strong at home. And we know that the best way to enhance freedom in other lands is to demonstrate here that our democratic system is worthy of emulation. — Jimmy Carter · 1977American Civil War1 quote
It created in this country what had never existed before-a national consciousness. It was not the salvation of the Union; it was the rebirth of the Union. — Woodrow Wilson · 1915American Founding1 quote
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. · 1963