Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his own words:

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his own words:
  
 
Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.

- Martin Luther King Jr.    

I said to my children, "I'm going to work and do everything that I can do to see that you get a good education. I don't ever want you to forget that there are millions of God's children who will not and cannot get a good education, and I don't want you feeling that you are better than they are. For you will never be what you ought to be until they are what they ought to be.'

- Martin Luther King Jr., 1.7.68    

I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

- Martin Luther King Jr., "Letter From Birmingham Jail ", 4.16.63    

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

- Martin Luther King Jr., "The Trumpet of Conscience", 1967    

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

- Martin Luther King Jr., "Remaining Awake Through A Great Revolution ", 3.31.68    

Whatever career you may choose for yourself -- doctor, lawyer, teacher -- let me propose an avocation to be pursued along with it. Become a dedicated fighter for civil rights. Make it a central part of your life. It will make you a better doctor, a better lawyer, a better teacher. It will enrich your spirit as nothing else possibly can. It will give you that rare sense of nobility that can only spring from love and selflessly helping your fellow man . Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for human rights. You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in.

- Martin Luther King Jr., 4.18.59    

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided man.

- Martin Luther King Jr., "Strength to Love", 1963    

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.

- Martin Luther King Jr., "The Trumpet of Conscience", 1967    

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.

- Martin Luther King Jr., quoting Martin Luther   

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

- Martin Luther King Jr., "Letter From
Birmingham Jail ", 4.16.63    

I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live.

- Martin Luther King Jr., 6.23.63    

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.

- Martin Luther King Jr., Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech , 12.10.64    

If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos.

- Martin Luther King Jr., "Justice Without Violence", 4.3.57    

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.

- Martin Luther King Jr., Wall Street Journal, 11.13.62    

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.

- Martin Luther King Jr., "Strength to Love", 1963    

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.

- Martin Luther King Jr., "Strength to Love", 1963    

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?"

- Martin Luther King Jr., "I've Been to the Mountain Top ", 4.3.68    

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.

- Martin Luther King Jr., "Strength to Love", 1963    

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.

- Martin Luther King Jr., "Strength to Love", 1963     

The time is always right to do what is right.

- Martin Luther King Jr., "Letter From Birmingham Jail ", 4.16.63    

People For the American Way proudly brings you the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968).

thanks.











edit: does anyone else "hear" his voice when reading his words? ;) /edit

I'm going to quote one of these every day until I run out.

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

:kick:

Let's keep this one kicked today.

I was going to do the same thing today. I'll take the liberty of adding a few of my favorites here.

One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal we seek, but that it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means.

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

I look forward confidently to the day when all who work for a living will be one with no thought to their separateness as Negroes, Jews, Italians or any other distinctions. This will be the day when we bring into full realization the American dream -- a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed; a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few; a dream of a land where men will not argue that the color of a man's skin determines the content of his character; a dream of a nation where all our gifts and resources are held not for ourselves alone, but as instruments of service for the rest of humanity; the dream of a country where every man will respect the dignity and worth of the human personality.

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.

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.

A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.

Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.

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.


And finally, bravely and prophetically:
If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.

that is a wonderful speech.
MLK, so postive and wise, & still so deeply missed..

....deep down chimpy must have hated having to lay a wreath at the grave of this great man and true patriot. this entire administration has been totally incongruent with the words of dr. king. chimpy is a cockroach compared to this great hero! even from his grave, dr. king continues to squash facists like bush.

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/ABOUT/history/mlking2.html

Family Planning - A Special and Urgent Concern
A Speech by The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
Upon Accepting The Planned Parenthood Federation of America Margaret Sanger Award
May 5, 1966
Delivered by Mrs. Coretta Scott King

"... There is a striking kinship between our movement and Margaret Sanger's early efforts. She, like we, saw the horrifying conditions of ghetto life. Like we, she knew that all of society is poisoned by cancerous slums. Like we, she was a direct actionist -- a nonviolent resister. She was willing to accept scorn and abuse until the truth she saw was revealed to the millions. At the turn of the century she went into the slums and set up a birth control clinic, and for this deed she went to jail because she was violating an unjust law. Yet the years have justified her actions. She launched a movement which is obeying a higher law to preserve human life under humane conditions.

"... For the Negro, therefore, intelligent guides of family planning are a profoundly important ingredient in his quest for security and a decent life. There are mountainous obstacles still separating Negroes from a normal existence. Yet one element in stabilizing his life would be an understanding of and easy access to the means to develop a family related in size to his community environment and to the income potential he can command. ..."

Before reading Dr. King's speech, Mrs. King declared: "I am proud tonight to say a word in behalf of your mentor, and the person who symbolizes the ideas of this organization, Margaret Sanger.

Because of her dedication, her deep convictions, and for her suffering for what she believed in, I would like to say that I am proud to be a woman tonight."

It's worth reading the entire thing, of course.

Despite what is, to our ears, King's bizarre and anachronistic use of the male pronoun throughout this address to talk about a problem that is plainly a particular hardship for women, and in fact his pretty much complete (but typical for the times) failure to address that fact or women's particular problems, he spoke in solidarity with a woman whose life had been devoted to alleviating women's suffering and who has been dishonestly reviled ever since as an enemy of African-Americans.

It's important to remember both Martin Luther King's and Corretta Scott King's courageous solidarity with Sanger and the others who sought to better the lives of women and all oppressed groups, when we hear, as we all too frequently do, vicious nonsense about the allegedly racist underpinnings of efforts to provide access to reproductive health services and the motives of the leading champion of those efforts. Such slurs do nothing but diminish his own legacy and dishonour his memory.

.