Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes - Page 2

No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they'd die for.

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.

I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.

As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation - either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.

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.

the time is always right to do the right thing

Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.

One day we will learn that the heart can never be totally right when the head is totally wrong

We are faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words ‘Too Late’.

Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.

Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.

A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right.

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

If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.

There is nothing more majestic than the determined courage of individuals willing to suffer and sacrifice for their freedom and dignity.