Quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr.

Please be peaceful. We believe in law and order. We are not advocating violence, I want you to love your enemies... for what we are doing is right, what we are doing is just -- and God is with us.

"I criticize America because I love her. I want her to stand as a moral example to the world."

The softminded person always wants to freeze the moment and hold life in the gripping yoke of sameness.

I've seen too much hate to want to hate, myself.

All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.

Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.

We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.

Human Salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.

Agape is disinterested love. . . . Agape does not begin by discriminating between worthy and unworthy people, or any qualities people possess. It begins by loving others for their sakes. . . . Therefore, agape makes no distinction between friend and enemy; it is directed toward both.

Don't hate, it's too big a burden to bear.

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

We all have the drum major instinct. We all want to be important, to surpass others, to achieve distinction, to lead the parade.

Three simple words can describe the nature of the social revolution that is talking place and what Negroes really want. They are the words "all," "now," and "here."

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.

The bombs in Vietnam explode at home; they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America.

We have guided missiles and misguided men.

Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.

It is a tragic mix-up when the United States spends 500,000 for every enemy soldier killed, and only 53 annually on the victims of poverty.

The problem of racism, the problem of economic exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together. These are the triple evils that are interrelated.

There are two types of laws: there are just laws and there are unjust laws... What is the difference between the two?...An unjust law is a man-made code that is out of harmony with the moral law.

Nonviolence is absolute commitment to the way of love. Love is not emotional bash; it is not empty sentimentalism. It is the active outpouring of one's whole being into the being of another.

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.

We must see that peace represents a sweeter music, a cosmic melody, that is far superior to the discords of war.

Riots are the voices of the unheard.