"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."

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More quotes from: Martin Luther King, Jr.

• "A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus. "
• "A lie cannot live. "
• "A man can't ride your back unless it's bent. "
• "A man who won't die for something is not fit to live. "
• "A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death ..."
• "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than ..."
• "A right delayed is a right denied. "
• "A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard. "
• "All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking ..."
• "Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better. "
• "An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly ..."
• "Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched ..."
• "Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. ..."
• "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; ..."
• "Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives ..."
• "Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still ..."
• "Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or ..."
• "Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college ..."
• "Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see. "
• "Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase. "
• "Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. "
• "From the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire, let freedom ring. From the mighty mountains of ..."
• "Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; ..."
• "Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must ..."
• "He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps ..."
• "History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition ..."
• "Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires ..."
• "Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted. "
• "I am not interested in power for power's sake, but I'm interested in power that ..."
• "I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. ..."
• "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a ..."
• "I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and ..."
• "I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons ..."

• "I have a dream that one day the sons of former slave owners will be ..."
• "I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go to the ..."
• "I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless ..."
• "I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something that he will die ..."
• "I want to be the white man's brother, not his brother-in-law. "
• "If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as ..."
• "If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers ..."
• "If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values ..."
• "If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, unborn generations will ..."
• "If you will protest courageously, and yet with dignity and Christian love, when the history ..."
• "In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence ..."
• "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. "
• "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhwre. We are caught in an inescapable network ..."
• "It is incontestable and deplorable that Negroes have committed crimes; but they are derivative crimes. ..."
• "It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to ..."
• "It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it ..."
• "Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?' "
• "Life's most urgent question is: what are you doing for others? "
• "Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend. "
• "Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. ..."
• "Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. "
• "Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal. "
• "Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness. "
• "Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man ..."
• "Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You ..."
• "Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. "
• "Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. "
• "One of the greatest casualties of the war in Vietnam is the Great Society... shot ..."
• "One who breaks an unjust law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly ..."
• "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. "
• "Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men. "
• "Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which ..."

• "Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of ..."
• "Put yourself in a state of mind where you say to yourself, "Here is an ..."
• "Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an ..."
• "Science investigates religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power religion gives man wisdom ..."
• "Seeing is not always believing. "
• "Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people ..."
• "So I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine ..."
• "Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just ..."
• "The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you ..."
• "The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: "If I stop to ..."
• "The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated ..."
• "The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of ..."
• "The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants ..."
• "The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our ..."
• "The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice. "
• "The Negro's great stumbling block in the drive toward freedom is not the White Citizens ..."
• "The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we ..."
• "The sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an ..."
• "The time is always right to do what is right. "
• "There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length ..."
• "Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows. "
• "We are not makers of history. We are made by history. "
• "We have guided missiles and misguided men. "
• "We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now. "
• "We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the postive affirmation ..."
• "We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the ..."
• "We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. "
• "We must use time creatively. "
• "We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and ..."
• "We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. "