Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. is known as being a leading voice of the American civil rights movement. And he is credited for preaching a message of nonviolent resistance. Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day and it is especially meaningful now, following a year of a turbulent pandemic, systematic racism protests, and a divisive election.
These are 22 of the most inspiring Martin Luther King Jr. quotes you should know:
“All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”
“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.”
“At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.”
“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. ”
“Hate is too great a burden to bear. I have decided to love.”
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
“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.”
“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.”
“If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl. But whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”
“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.”
“Love is the greatest force in the universe. It is the heartbeat of the moral cosmos. He who loves is a participant in the being of God.”
“Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.”
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
“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.”
“We are not makers of history. We are made by history.”
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
“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.”
“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
“We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”
“We must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future.”
“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
Featured Photo Credit: Minnesota Historical Society via Wikipedia
