"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."

Rating:

  rate this quote
Topic: none  help us select a topic for this quote

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. "
• "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort ..."
• "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 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. "