Martin Luther King Jr.

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

"The time is always right to do what is right."

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

"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle."

"Love is the most durable power in the world."

"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear."

"Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

"The greatest purveyor of violence in the world is my own government."

"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."

"I am not interested in power for power's sake, but I'm interested in power that is moral."

"We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now."

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is: what are you doing for others?"

"The level to which we aspire must be the height of human possibility."

"I've decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden."

"Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude."

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

"The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live."

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

"Cowardice asks if it is safe. Expediency asks if it is politic. Vanity asks if it is popular. But conscience asks if it is right."

"If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation."

"Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows."

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

"The purpose of education is to awaken the individual rather than to fill the mind with facts."

"Softness and gentleness are properties of water, yet water will wear away stone."

"We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was legal."

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who perpetrates it."

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

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

"The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people."

"Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend."