"I have never experienced the feeling of not having the basic necessities of life. These things were always provided by a father who always put his family first."
"But this uncritical attitude could not last long, for it was contrary to the very nature of my being. I had always been the questioning and precocious type."
"I would end up having to go to the back of that bus with my body, but every time I got on that bus I left my mind up on the front seat. And I said to myself, 'One of these days I'm going to put my body up there where my mind is."
"It is my conviction that the minister must somehow take profound theological and philosophical views and place them in a concrete framework. I must forever make the complex the simple."
"Above all, I see the preaching ministry as a dual process. On the one hand I must attempt to change the soul of individuals so that their societies may be changed. On the other I must attempt to change the societies so that the individual soul will have a change."
"...the chronicle of fifty thousand Negroes who took to heart the principles of nonviolence, who learned to fight for their right with the weapon of love, and who, in the process, acquired a new estimate of their own human worth."
"And as I watched them I knew that there is nothing more majestic than the determined courage of individuals willing to suffer and sacrifice for their freedom and dignity."
"I soon saw that I was the victim of an unwarranted pessimism because I had started out with an unwarranted optimism."
"Those who had previously trembled before the law were now proud to be arrested for the cause of freedom."
"What the opposition failed to see was that our mutual suffering had wrapped us all in a single garment of destiny. What happened to one happened to all."
"Often the path to freedom will carry you through prison."
"The aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community, so that when the battle is over, a new relationship comes into being between the oppressed and the oppressor."
"Our ultimate aim was not to defeat or humiliate the white man but to win his friendship and understanding. We had a moral obligation to remind him that segregation is wrong. We protested with the ultimate aim of being reconciled with our white brothers."
"But I had to look at something else beyond the man - the people who surrounded him - and I felt that Kennedy was surrounded by better people. It was on that basis that I felt that Kennedy would make the best president."
"The people of Albany had straightened their backs, and, as Gandhi had said, no one can ride on the back of a man unless it is bent."
"The ultimate tragedy of Birmingham was not the brutality of the bad people, but the silence of the good people."
"There comes a time in the atmosphere of leadership when a man surrounded by loyal friends and allies realizes he has come face-to-face with himself and with ruthless reality. I was along in that crowded room."
"We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."
"...one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that 'an unjust law is no law at all.'"
"I have tried to make clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends."
"A social movement that only moves people is merely a revolt. A movement that changes both people and institution is a revolution."
"American political thought was not committed to conservatism, nor radicalism, nor moderation. It was above all fluid. As such it contained trends rather than hard lines, and affirmative leadership could guide it into constructive channels."
"Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meaning can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart."
"But then I realized that this was no mere recognition of the contribution of one man on the stage of history. It was a testimony to the magnificent drama of the civil rights movement and the thousands of actors who had played their roles extremely well. In truth, it is these 'noble' people who had won this Novel Prize."
"Racial justice around the world. Poverty. War. When man solves these three great problems he will have squared his moral progress with his scientific progress. And, more importantly, he will had learned the practical art of living in harmony."
"Cities that had been citadels of the status quo became the unwilling birthplace of significant national legislation. Montgomery led to the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and 1960; Birmingham inspired the Civil Rights Act of 1964; and Selma produced the Voting Rights Act of 1965."
"When all is finally entered into the annals of sociology; when philosophers, politicians, and preachers have all had their say, we must return to the fact that a person participates in this society primarily as an economic entity. At rock bottom we are neither poets, athletes, nor artists; our existence is centered in the fact that we are consumers, because we first must eat and have shelter to life."
"I should have been reminded that disappointment produces despair and despair produces bitterness, and that the one thing certain about bitterness is its blindness."
"Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love."
"I refuse to determine what is right by taking a Gallup poll of the trends of the time. I imagine that there were leaders in Germany who sincerely opposed what Hitler was doing to the Jews. But they took their poll and discovered that anti-Semitism was the prevailing trend. In order to 'be in step with the times,' in order to 'keep in touch,' they yielded to one of the most ignominious evils that history has ever known."
"We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triples of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."
"On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' And Vanity comes along and 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, not politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right."
"If I can help somebody as I pass along, if I can cheer somebody with a word or song, if I can show somebody he's traveling wrong, then my living will not be in vain. If I can do my duty as a Christian ought, it I can bring salvation to a world once wrought, if I can spread the message as the master taught, then my living will not be in vain."
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