Inspiration Quotes by Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King
1929-1968
US Civil Rights Leader,Clergyman

About Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an African American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the American civil rights movement. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States and he is frequently referenced as a human rights icon today.

A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–6) and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1957), serving as its first president. His efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. There, he raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement and established himself as one of the greatest orators in U.S. history.

In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means. By the time of his death in 1968, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and opposing the Vietnam War, both from a religious perspective.

King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004; Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. national holiday in 1986.



Be inspired by these famous inspirational quotes by Martin Luther King. A man who gave inspiration and hope to millions of people. A man whose actions helped change the world.

We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles, rather than by the quality of our service relationship to humanity.
~Martin Luther King

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
~Martin Luther King

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
~Martin Luther King

Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve.
~Martin Luther King

Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.
~Martin Luther King

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed - we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.
~Martin Luther King

It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.
~Martin Luther King

The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important.
~Martin Luther King

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
~Martin Luther King

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
~Martin Luther King

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.
~Martin Luther King

Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
~Martin Luther King

Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase.
~Martin Luther King

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
~Martin Luther King

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
~Martin Luther King

A lie cannot live.
~Martin Luther King

Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it.
Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it.
Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.
~Martin Luther King

I've decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.
~Martin Luther King.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
~Martin Luther King

Life's most urgent question is: what are you doing for others?
~Martin Luther King

We are not makers of history. We are made by history.
~Martin Luther King

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
~Martin Luther King

The time is always right to do what is right.
~Martin Luther King

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.
~Martin Luther King

A man can't ride your back unless it's bent.
~Martin Luther King

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.
~Martin Luther King

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.
~Martin Luther King

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
M~artin Luther King

I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.
~Martin Luther King

I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live.
~Martin Luther King

All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.
~Martin Luther King

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

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

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.
~Martin Luther King

There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage.
~Martin Luther King

If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.
~Martin Luther King

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.
~Martin Luther King

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
~Martin Luther King

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.
~Martin Luther King