Quotes to inspire and reflect

These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people.

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.

The Negro needs the white man to free him from his fears. The white man needs the Negro to free him from his guilt.

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.

It is incontestable and deplorable that Negroes have committed crimes; but they are derivative crimes. They are born of the greater crimes of the white society.

The principle of self-defense, even involving weapons and bloodshed, has never been condemned, even by Gandhi.

If I wish to compose or write or pray or preach well, I must be angry. Then all the blood in my veins is stirred, and my understanding is sharpened.

The sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.

Since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity.

India One of the greatest casualties of the war in Vietnam is the Great Society... shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam.

We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.

I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land.

Every man lives in two realms: the internal and the external. The internal is that realm of spiritual ends expressed in art, literature, morals, and religion. The external is that complex of devices, techniques, mechanisms, and instrumentalities by means of which we live.

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

Capitalism does not permit an even flow of economic resources. With this system, a small privileged few are rich beyond conscience, and almost all others are doomed to be poor at some level. That's the way the system works. And since we know that the system will not change the rules, we are going to have to change the system.

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.

We must use time creatively.

The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control.

Pity may represent little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, but true sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one's soul.

Giving All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.

There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth.

There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.

Whatever your life's work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.

When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.

Means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.

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

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

All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.

The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one.

The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values - that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.

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

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.

The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important.

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.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.

Don't let anybody make you think God chose America as His divine messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world.

Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.

We who in engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive.

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?'

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.

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.

To other countries, I may go as a tourist, but to India, I come as a pilgrim.