Martin Luther King Jr.

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.'

True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.

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.

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of freedom, it produces enslavement.

The end of life is not to be happy, nor to achieve pleasure and avoid pain, but to do the will of God, come what may.

One day we will learn that the heart can never be totally right when the head is totally wrong.

The great problem of history is that the means by which we live have outdistanced the spiritual ends for which we live. So we have built a bridge to the moon, but we have not built a bridge between the different races of man on this earth.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.

The price that society pays for the ignorance of its children is not paid in dollars and cents, but in the spiritual and moral decay of its people.

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 first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But the Good Samaritan reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?'

I can see the problems of the world and my own personal problems all in one perspective. I can see the evils of the world and my own evils. I can see the good of the world and my own good. I can see the need for a savior and my own need for a savior.

I have come to believe that the true mission of the church is to be a moral thermostat, not a moral thermometer.

I am so glad to know that you are still thinking of me and that you still love me. I love you too, and I always will.

I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values.

I am not afraid of the words of the violent, but I am afraid of the silence of the good.

I am writing to you today to express my deep concern about the state of our nation.

I have been in so many jails in my life that I feel like a veteran.

I am convinced that the universe is on the side of justice.

I have been to the mountaintop, and I've seen the promised land.