In this time of chaos, fear, and doubt, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words bring calm, clarity, and unity.
January 15 should have been King’s 92nd birthday and Americans celebrated his legacy and what his words of wisdom mean now during the 35th annual MLK Day of Celebration on Monday, January 18. The pastor and humanitarian’s life was cut short when he was just 39 years old: he was shot and killed on April 4, 1968.
You can find some of MLK’s most important and poignant quotes, collected by Bored Panda, below. Upvote the ones that resonated the most with you and the ones that you think are especially important in these confusing times. Become a part of the discussion and share your thoughts about King’s ideas and his legacy in the comments.
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"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."
R.I.P. Martin Luther King, if you were alive today you still wouldn't be happy with the ways some americans are today.
"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
"If you can’t fly, run. If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, crawl, but by all means, keep moving."
"...and if you can't do that, you know the saying, if you can't do that, you get someone to carry you..."
A very recent documentary, MLK/FBI, released by director Sam Pollard and based on newly declassified files shows how the US government surveilled and harassed King: from wiretaps to suggestions that he should kill himself.
Meanwhile, King’s oldest son, Martin Luther King III, told CNN that his father would be disappointed with the US if he were still alive. “My father always believed in the people of our nation. Certainly, he would be greatly disappointed in how we have chosen to conduct ourselves at this particular moment,” he said. “He understood we are a United States of America, not a divided state of America, and he would be telling us we must turn to each other, not turn on each other.”
Bored Panda spoke about the fight to end racism in the United States with positivity blogger and writer Shola Richards. According to Richards, the deaths of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, Breonna Taylor on March 13, and others “irrevocably jolted awake” many people to the reality of what life in the US is like for black people. However, he pointed out that real change is going to be a long journey that will not happen overnight or even in a single year.
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
The promoter of love became a victim of hatred. In such cases it may seem that evil prevails. But then you turn back and see where MLK is in the minds and hearts of the people and where those who killed and denied him are. You see what his achievement is and where those who wanted to stop him stand. And you don't even ask where those enemies of humanity and justice are. You simply know
"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"
These are perhaps the words I have most often heard him so eloquently state--his beautiful, resonant voice speaking a universal truth we have yet to implement. I hope everyone who hears these words is moved to put them into action.
"The time is always right to do what is right."
“My hope is that as many people as possible will continue to educate themselves on systemic racism by reading informative books, like ‘How to be an Anti-Racist’ by Ibram Kendi or ‘White Fragility’ by Robin DiAngelo. I hope that as many people as possible will continue to stand up to racism and show up as strong allies, despite some of their friends and family rolling their eyes at them for doing so,” Richards explained his hopes that the movement against systemic racism doesn’t fizzle out but continues through people educating themselves.
In Richards’ opinion, “people of all races” protesting together in large numbers is the most effective way to “demand meaningful change” in the country.
“I hope that people will continue to have important discussions about race, even though those discussions can be uncomfortable and difficult. Most of all, I hope that people won’t get tired, become discouraged, and quit on this long journey to reshape America. This is how we must fight racism, and as with anything meaningful, it’s going to require a lot of work.” Remember, change doesn’t happen overnight. But it’s worth the effort for a world with more humanity.
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
"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."
This one is so very relevant to today's society; there are many selfish people who refuse to acknowledge their social responsibilities.
“Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.”
"We have deluded ourselves into believing the myth that capitalism grew and prospered out of the Protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifices. The fact is that capitalism was built on the exploitation and suffering of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor — both black and white, both here and abroad."
I want this one on all government buildings. This morning at be understood by those who make policies
"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."
If only that were truly true because I've seen a lot in this country.
"I have decided to stick with love. ... Hate is too great a burden to bear."
"The more there are riots, the more repressive action will take place, and the more we face the danger of a right-wing takeover and eventually a fascist society."
“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
"The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to live intensively and to think critically. ... Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education."
We are falling so far behind in education. All this talk of supporting families and communities, but yet education is continually on the chopping block when it is the basis of everything worthwhile in society.
"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."
"Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think."
I was a stupid, young kid when this man was alive. I wish I could have heard him speak. Do you think James Earl Jones could be persuaded to make recordings of his speeches. I think his voice would be a great tribute to the words.
"Never succumb to the temptation of becoming bitter."
"Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will."
"We must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope."
"If a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live."
"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."
Absolutely. Look at the last four years of Trump's war against America. All the racists he has allowed and encouraged to come out of the woodwork who used to hide in dark corners. The harm he has done and the normalization of lies, cruelty, bigotry and racism will take great love and work to overcome.
"Let no man pull you so low as to hate him."
"The ultimate tragedy ... was not the brutality of the bad people, but the silence of the good people."
"There comes a time when we must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right."
"Like anybody, I would like to live a long life — longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will."
Imagine the good he would've gone on to accomplish, how much farther he could've advanced the rights of black people, had he not been assassinated
"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle."
“That old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.”
"Nonviolence is absolute commitment to the way of love. Love is not emotional bash; it is not empty sentimentalism. It is the active outpouring of one’s whole being into the being of another."
“The soft-minded man always fears change. He feels security in the status quo, and he has an almost morbid fear of the new. For him, the greatest pain is the pain of a new idea.”
"I came to the conclusion that there is an existential moment in your life when you must decide to speak for yourself; nobody else can speak for you."
"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."
“Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
"I think that we've got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard. And, what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the economic plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years."
"Let me say as I've always said, and I will always continue to say, that riots are socially destructive and self-defeating. I'm still convinced that nonviolence is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom and justice. I feel that violence will only create more social problems than they will solve. That in a real sense it is impracticable for the Negro to even think of mounting a violent revolution in the United States. So I will continue to condemn riots, and continue to say to my brothers and sisters that this is not the way. And continue to affirm that there is another way."
"Why is equality so assiduously avoided? Why does white America delude itself, and how does it rationalize the evil it retains?"
"No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."
"The problems of racial injustice and economic injustice cannot be solved without a radical redistribution of political and economic power."
"When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."
"The Negro has no room to make any substantial compromises because his store of advantages is too small. He must press unrelentingly for quality, integrated education or his whole drive for freedom will be undermined by the absence of a most vital and indispensable element — learning."
“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. ”
“Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”
“Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.”
“When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative. ”
“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”
"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 in reality."
"It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence."
"The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows."
“All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”
“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.”
“If the cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. Because the goal of America is freedom, abused and scorned tho’ we may be, our destiny is tied up with America’s destiny.”
“Whatever your life’s work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better. ”
“You will change your mind; You will change your looks; You will change your smile, laugh, and ways but no matter what you change, you will always be you.”
“Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step.”
Everything he said is as relevant today as it was back then. What an incredible speaker.
This brilliant man changed America with love and non-violence. Now all of his hard work has been trampled and destroyed by hate and violence.
“Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step.”
Everything he said is as relevant today as it was back then. What an incredible speaker.
This brilliant man changed America with love and non-violence. Now all of his hard work has been trampled and destroyed by hate and violence.
