Quotes About Martin Luther King Jr.

Playing Martin Luther King Jr. was an honor for me on so many levels. It was the most I've ever prepared for a role.

When I was 15 years old in 1955, I heard of Rosa Parks. I heard the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. on our radio.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream was a manifestation of hope that humanity might one day get out of its own way by finding the courage to realize that love and nonviolence are not indicators of weakness but gifts of significant strength.

Each year on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birth, America has the opportunity to reflect on our nation's progress towards the realization of his dream.

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.

If we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday at a time of presidential inaugurals, this is thanks to Ronald Reagan who created the holiday, and not to the Democratic Congress of the Carter years, which rejected it.

I'm grateful to God that, through the Negro church, the dimension of nonviolence entered our struggle.

It will be one of the tragedies of Christian history if future historians record that at the height of the twentieth century the church was one of the greatest bulwarks of white supremacy.

Opponents of legal birth control, including abortion, have tried for decades to play the race card, saying that legal abortion is racist. What they ignore is that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. accepted the Margaret Sanger Award from Planned Parenthood in 1966.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke in religious institutions almost every day of his adult life but never once told a congregation or gathering there for whom to vote.

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.

Since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity.

The principle of self defense, even involving weapons and bloodshed, has never been condemned, even by Gandhi.

Memphis is the place where rock was born and Martin Luther King, Jr., was killed. It's full of contradictions, abject poverty, and riches that only music can provide.

The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. made me very, very sad, and I mourned and I cried like many of our citizens did.

By contrast, Rice said, "Negro ministers, unfortunately have...very often had a bad influence. The Negro minister [Martin Luther King Jr.] in Montgomery, Alabama, who led in the organization of a Negro boycott of the buses, led that fight, unfortunately, not as a Christian trying to make good Christians and to lead in Christian understanding between the races. He led that boycott as a modernist and a socialist who was more concerned about racism than he was about Christianity, I fear.

When I was teaching in the 1960s in Boston, there was a great deal of hope in the air. Martin Luther King Jr. was alive, Malcolm X was alive; great, great leaders were emerging from the southern freedom movement.

President Obama's achievements and failures must be evaluated by comparison to those chief executives who have come before him and not be measured against the prophetically moral voice of Martin Luther King Jr.

En su último sermón antes de ser asesinado, Martin Luther King, Jr. dijo: «Todo el mundo puede ser grande… porque cualquiera puede servir. No hace falta un título universitario para servir. No hace falta hacer concordar el sujeto con el predicado para servir. Solo hace falta un corazón lleno de gracia. Un alma creada por el amor».

The great glory of American democracy is the right to protest for right," as Martin Luther King Jr. once said. The nation is often wrong. But so long as protest is possible, it can always be righted.

I think it's a good thing for a president or political leaders to want to put their values or their faith into action. Desmond Tutu did that in South Africa. Martin Luther King Jr. did that here. This is a good thing.

As Martin Luther King Jr. said in his "I Have a Dream" speech, whose fiftieth anniversary has now passed, "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."1 King's dream failed that night in Florida when Zimmerman decided to follow Martin because of the color of his skin.

Jesus proclaimed, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God" (Matt. 5:9). Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us, "True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice."46

The greatest moral leader of my lifetime was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose private life does not bear close examination.