Top 50 Martin Luther King Quotes on Life, Inspiration & Love

Who was Martin Luther King?

Martin Luther King Jr. – original name – Michael King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Georgia, US. He was an American Christian minister and an activist. He became the most prominent leader and activist in the revolutionary civil rights movement. Martin had been a part of it since 1955 until his assassination. He is much known for his contribution to the civil rights movement through civil disobedience and non-violence, inspired by the paths of Mahatma Gandhi and Christian beliefs.

Early Life:

Martin Luther King was born Michael King, Jr. In Atlanta, Georgia. He was the second of the three children to Reverend Michael King Sr., his father and Alberta King, his mother. His name Michael was given to him by his mother. His father had left home when he was younger to move to Atlanta to attain a high school education. He then admitted into the Morehouse college to get the knowledge of the ministry.

During his childhood, the king and his other siblings would read biblical scriptures and tales as instructed by their father. King’s grandmother, Jennie, would tell stories to the children. King used to get beaten and whipped by his father as a child. All of the children had to get through it to maintain discipline in themselves. Sometimes they were asked to whip each other. King’s father later also revealed that he was the strangest of the children. When he used to get beaten, he would stand there still and tears would fall down his eyes, but he wouldn’t cry. King had attempted suicide when he was a child when once he by mistake, made his grandmother fall and unresponsive.

He had faced the cases of racism and discrimination and had seen his father getting through it as a child too.

Ideas and Influences:

King was a Christian minister, and that’s why his primary and significant influence was Jesus Christ and his gospels. He used to quote and say all these in his public meetings, speeches, etc. His main focuses were on the Christian teachings such as – loving your neighbour as yourself, loving God above all, and loving your enemies, praying for them and blessing them. His non-violent theory was also based on the injunction of ‘Turn the other cheek’.

Here’s a list of ‘Martin Luther King’ quotes we’ve collected below.

Martin Luther King quotes on Life:

“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“We are not makers of history. We are made by history.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“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.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Lightning makes no sound until it strikes.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“We cannot walk alone.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a constant attitude.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Inspirational quotes:

“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.

“But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they’d die for.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“A lie cannot live.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“The time is always right to do what is right.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“No person has the right to rain on your dreams.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King quotes on Love:

“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“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.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Power is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice is love correcting everything that goes against love.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King quotes on Hope:

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Only in the darkness can you see the stars.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“We stand in life at midnight; we are always at the threshold of a new dawn.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Like the ever-changing cycle of the seasons, life has the soothing warmth of the summers and the piercing chill of its winters.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“My obligation is to do the right thing. The rest is in God’s hands.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King quotes on Hate:

“There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man’s sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Hate is just as injurious to the hater as it is to the hated. Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Many of our inner conflicts are rooted in hate. This is why psychiatrists say, “Love or perish.” Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Hate destroys the hater…”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

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