John Lewis

"We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries and the size of our automobiles rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to humanity."

"I stand before you today to testify that life is inexplicably precious."

"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy."

"Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education."

"I have lived long enough to know that the night stages always give way to the sunshine of hope."

"The purpose of direct action is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation."

"Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it."

"If America is to be a great nation, this must become true: all people are created equal and the promise of America must apply to all Americans."

"The time comes when silence is betrayal."

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war."

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness—only love can do that."

"We are determined here in Birmingham to work and fight until justice runs down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream."

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

"Let no man pull you so low as to hate him."

"The goal of America is freedom. Abused so often in history, its promise always remains."

"We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right."

"Psychology which explains everything explains nothing, and we are Psychology students if we remain in the realm of explanation only."

"There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right."

"True peace is not found in treaties between powerful nations but in the hearts of men and women willing to live justly toward one another."

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

"I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations."

"Many of the ugly pages of American history have been obscured and forgotten."

"Before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you've depended on more than half the world."

"Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal."

"A man who won't die for something is not fit to live."

"We cannot walk alone."

"The ultimate tragicality is that some of us are attempting to move from a society built on domination to one built on cooperation."

"The question of violence and nonviolence in this struggle is not one of form alone but of sanity itself."

"Injustice anywhere, injustice everywhere."

"True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is recognizing that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."