These timeless Martin Luther King Jr. quotes will restore your faith in humanity—on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and beyond
60 Powerful Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes That Stand the Test of Time
Updated on Nov. 27, 2024
Famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes from “I Have a Dream”
1. “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.” —“I Have a Dream,” 1963
2. “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 plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” —“I Have a Dream,” 1963
3. “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.” —“I Have a Dream,” 1963
4. “Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.” —“I Have a Dream,” 1963
5. “The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.” —“I Have a Dream,” 1963
6. “I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream.” —“I Have a Dream,” 1963
7. “We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.” —“I Have a Dream,” 1963
8. “Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.” —“I Have a Dream,” 1963
9. “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.” —“I Have a Dream,” 1963
10. “Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.” —“I Have a Dream,” 1963
Martin Luther King Jr. quotes about freedom
11. “All we say to America is, ‘Be true to what you said on paper.’ … Somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of the press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right.” —“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” 1968
12. “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.” —”The Death of Evil upon the Seashore,” 1956
13. “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed.” —“Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” 1963
14. “True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.” —Stride Toward Freedom, 1957
15. “For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory.” —“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” 1968
16. “With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.” —“I Have a Dream,” 1963
Martin Luther King Jr. quotes about courage and faith
17. “Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.” —Speech at Park Sheraton Hotel, 1962
18. “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” —Sermon delivered in Selma, Alabama, 1965
19. “Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.” —”Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” 1967
20. “There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right.” —“A Proper Sense of Priorities,” 1968
21. “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.” —Strength to Love, 1963
22. “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” —”The Domestic Impact of the War in Vietnam,” 1967
23. “If you can’t fly, run. If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, crawl. But by all means, keep moving.” —Address at Spelman College, 1960
24. “We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.” —“The Purpose of Education,” 1947
25. “We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now because I’ve been to the mountaintop … 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.” —“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” 1968
26. “On the one hand, we must accept the finite disappointment, but in spite of this, we must maintain the infinite hope.” —“Shattered Dreams,” 1962
27. “We must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future.” —“Where Do We Go from Here?” 1967
28. “One day we will learn that the heart can never be totally right when the head is totally wrong.” —Strength to Love, 1963
29. “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” —“Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution,” 1968
30. “Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. If you can’t be a highway, just be a trail. If you can’t be a sun, be a star. For it isn’t by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.” —Speech at Glenville High School, 1967
Martin Luther King Jr. quotes about unity
31. “Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.” —“Beyond Vietnam,” 1967
32. “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” —Speech in St. Louis, 1964
33. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” —“Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” 1963
34. “Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when it helps us to see the enemy’s point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.” —“Beyond Vietnam,” 1967
35. “All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.” —“All Labor Has Dignity,” 1968
36. “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” —“Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” 1963
37. “We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always right to do right.” —“Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” 1963
38. “The beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.” —Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, 1964
39. “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” —Speech in Montgomery, Alabama, 1957
40. “If democracy is to have breadth of meaning, it is necessary to adjust this inequity. It is not only moral, but it is also intelligent. We are wasting and degrading human life by clinging to archaic thinking.” —“Where Do We Go from Here?” 1967
41. “There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November.” —“The Montgomery Bus Boycott,” 1955
42. “Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a better person of yourself, a greater nation of your country and a finer world to live in.” —Speech at the Youth March for Integrated Schools, 1959
43. “People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.” —Speech at Cornell College, 1962
Martin Luther King Jr. quotes about love
44. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: Only love can do that.” —Strength to Love, 1963
45. “Everybody can be great … because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” —“The Drum Major Instinct,” 1968
46. “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.” —A Gift of Love, published in 2012
47. “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.”—Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, 1964
48. “Love is the greatest force in the universe. It is the heartbeat of the moral cosmos. He who loves is a participant in the being of God.” —From a handwritten letter, mid-1960s
49. “Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.” —“The Most Durable Power,” 1956
50. “I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind’s problems.” —“Where Do We Go from Here?” 1967
51. “Hate is too great a burden to bear. I have decided to love.” —“Where Do We Go from Here?” 1967
52. “Forgiveness is not an occasional act. It is a permanent attitude.” —“Love in Action,” 1962
53. “That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.” —”Loving Your Enemies,” 1957
Martin Luther King Jr. quotes about peace
54. “Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.” —Nobel Lecture, 1964
55. “If we are to have peace on Earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective.” —Christmas Sermon, 1967
56. “Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love … violence ends up defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.” —Nobel Lecture, 1964
57. “We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we will still love you.” —Christmas Sermon, 1967
58. “Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all the other shallow things will not matter.” —“The Drum Major Instinct,” 1968
59. “It is not enough to say ‘We must not wage war.’ It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the positive affirmation of peace.” —Anti-War Conference, 1967
60. “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.” —Speech in Montgomery, Alabama, 1965
If you loved these Martin Luther King Jr. quotes, keep the inspiration going with powerful James Baldwin quotes on love, freedom and equality.
Additional reporting by Claire Nowak.
Why trust us
At Reader’s Digest, we’ve been sharing our favorite quotes for over 100 years. The sayings and quips that appear in the magazine’s “Quotable Quotes” (formerly “Remarkable Remarks”) are curated from interviews and essays originally published in the magazine, reprints from trusted titles and other verified sources. For this piece on Martin Luther King Jr. quotes, former Reader’s Digest editor Meghan Jones ensured that all information is accurate. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.
