A biography for Martin Luther Kinghasn’t been written yet.
“The Negro needs the white man to free him from his fears. The white man needs the Negro to free him from his guilt.”
“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”
“Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'”
“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.”
“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 concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the postive affirmation of peace.”
“All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.”
“Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.”
“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.”
“At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.”
“We are not makers of history. We are made by history.”
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
“I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”
“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.”
“Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control.”
“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”
“There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth.”
“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
“That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.”