The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one.

Lukewarm acceptance is more bewildering than outright rejection.

There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth.

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.

The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be… The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.

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.

In a sense, songs are the soul of a movement.

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

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever.

Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts.

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

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.

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.

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

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

If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.  

No man is defeated without until he has first been defeated within.

All my successes have been built on my failures.

Happiness is the settling of the soul into its most appropriate spot.

Happiness is activity.