Forgiveness does not mean ignoring what has been done or putting a false label on an evil act. It means, rather, that the evil act no longer remains as a barrier to the relationship. Forgiveness is a catalyst creating the atmosphere necessary for a fresh start and a new beginning.

I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate, adding deeper darkness to a night that is already void of stars.

We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: ‘Too late’.

There is little hope for us until we become tough-minded enough to break loose from the shackles of prejudice, half-truths, and downright ignorance. The shape of the world today does not permit us the luxury of soft mindedness.

You can kill the dreamer, but you can’t kill the dream.

Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.

The time is always right to do what is right.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed; We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal

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.

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.

Courage is the power of the mind to overcome fear.

Whatever your life’s work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.

If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

No person has the right to rain on your dreams.

Find a voice in a whisper.

A lie cannot live.

Seeing is not always believing.

A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.

We are not makers of history. We are made by history.

The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But the good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’

Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience.

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.

The best way to solve any problem is to remove its cause.

The difference between a dreamer and a visionary is that a dreamer has his eyes closed and a visionary has his eyes open.

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

We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.

Courageous men never lose the zest for living even though their life situation is zestless; cowardly men, overwhelmed by the uncertainties of life, lose the will to live.

I submit to you that if a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.

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

Freedom has always been an expensive thing. History is fit testimony to the fact that freedom is rarely gained without sacrifice and self-denial.

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom.

Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart.

May I stress the need for courageous, intelligent, and dedicated leadership… Leaders of sound integrity. Leaders not in love with publicity, but in love with justice. Leaders not in love with money, but in love with humanity. Leaders who can subject their particular egos to the greatness of the cause.

Courage faces fear and thereby masters it.

Our children need our presence, not our presents.

It’s not burn baby burn, but learn, baby, learn, so that you can earn, baby, earn.

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 must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.

If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life 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.

Only in the darkness can you see the stars.

I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will.

Darkness cannot be overcome with more darkness, only with light. Violence cannot be overcome with more violence, only with peace.

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.

We must learn that passively to accept an unjust system is to cooperate with that system, and thereby to become a participant in its evil.