Top 500 Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes (2023 Update)

1. “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Featured in: Perseverance Quotes, Persistence Quotes

2. “I Have a Dream”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

3. “Only in the darkness can you see the stars.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Featured in: Quotes About Stars

4. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Featured in: Love Quotes

5. “The time is always right to do the right thing.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Featured in: Inspirational Quotes, Attitude Quotes, Inspiring Quotes

6. “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

7. “There is no gain without struggle.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

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

— Martin Luther King Jr.

9. “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.

Featured in: Leadership Quotes

10. “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

11. “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Featured in: Love Quotes

12. “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Featured in: Life Quotes

13. “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

14. “Lightning makes no sound until it strikes.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

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

— Martin Luther King Jr.

16. “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

17. “A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

18. “You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

19. “No person has the right to rain on your dreams.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

20. “Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Featured in: Forgiveness Quotes

21. “Judge a man not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

22. “Hate destroys the hater.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

23. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

24. “Let’s build bridges, not walls.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

25. “Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

26. “Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

27. “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.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

28. “Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

29. “Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

30. “Use me, God. Show me how to take who I am, who I want to be, and what I can do, and use it for a purpose greater than myself.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Featured in: Quotes About Purpose

31. “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

32. “Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

33. “Be a thermostat not a thermometer.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

34. “Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

35. “There comes a time when silence is betrayal.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

36. “A right delayed is a right denied.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

37. “No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

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

— Martin Luther King Jr.

39. “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.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Featured in: Greatness Quotes, Quotes About Humanity

40. “People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

41. “It does not matter how long you live, but how well you do it.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

42. “Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

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

— Martin Luther King Jr.

44. “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.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

45. “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.

Featured in: Faith Quotes, Peace Quotes, Truth Quotes

46. “Whatever your life’s work is, do it well.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

47. “That old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Featured in: Time Quotes

48. “Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

49. “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

50. “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.