The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.
We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.
We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.
War is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow.
Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.
The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.
Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.
Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.
At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.
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.
I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.
Pity may represent little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, but true sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one's soul.
Don't let anybody make you think God chose America as His divine messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world.
A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.
It is incontestable and deplorable that Negroes have committed crimes; but they are derivative crimes. They are born of the greater crimes of the white society.
Every man lives in two realms: the internal and the external. The internal is that realm of spiritual ends expressed in art, literature, morals, and religion. The external is that complex of devices, techniques, mechanisms, and instrumentalities by means of which we live.