Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ Vanity asks the question, ‘Is it popular?’ But, conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’ And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one’s conscience tells one that it is right.

Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts.

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.

Whatever career you may choose for yourself – doctor, lawyer, teacher – let me propose an avocation to be pursued along with it.

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.

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now.

The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.

A right delayed is a right denied.

I am not interested in power for power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

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

Darkness is only driven out with light, not more darkness.

True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.

I want to be the white man’s brother, not his brother-in-law.

When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.

A man can’t ride your back unless it’s bent.

Anyone who attempts is not a failure.

Happiness depends upon ourselves.

The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think.

To write well, express yourself like common people, but think like a wise man. Or, think as wise men do, but speak as the common people do.