Today we celebrate and remember Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration

Martin Luther King Jr. | Born January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia | Died (Assassinated) April 4, 1968 (aged 39) Memphis, Tennessee.

Following are 27 quotes that, if still alive, he could have as easily said about our world today:

  • “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
  • “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
  • “The time is always right to do what is right.”
  • “A riot is the language of the unheard.”
  • “The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win, and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility.”
  • “The more there are riots, the more repressive action will take place, and the more we face the danger of a right-wing takeover and eventually a fascist society.”
  • “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
  • “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.”
  • “Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.”
  • “Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.”
  • “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
  • “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?'”
  • “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
  • “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.”
  • “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”
  • “Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.”
  • “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
  • “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.”
  • “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
  • “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”
  • “When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.”
  • “That old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.”
  • “Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose, they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.”
  • “Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.”
  • “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.”

And finally, one of his most famous and visionary quotes, still sadly unrealized today:

  • “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.”

 

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