Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes About Peace

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  Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2012). “A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings”, p.67, Beacon Press
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  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.

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  Strength to Love (1963) ch. 3

• I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love, Inspirational, Inspiring
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  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.

  Love, Faith, Peace

  "50 years after receiving Nobel Prize, do Martin Luther King's peace prophecies still resonate?", www.foxnews.com. October 12, 2014.

• Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love, Peace, Winning

  Martin Luther King (Jr.), Alex Ayres (1993). “The Wisdom of Martin Luther King, Jr”, Plume

• 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.

  Love, Being Strong, Peace

  Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, Norway, 10 Dec. 1964

• Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, Kings, Struggle

  "Letter from Birmingham Jail," 16 Apr. 1963

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

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Spiritual, Peace

  Strength to Love ch. 7 (1963)

• We have before us the glorious opportunity to inject a new dimension of love into the veins of our civilization.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love, Inspirational, Peace

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings”, p.28, Beacon Press

• Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

• 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?'

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspiring, Leadership, Peace

• I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, Freedom, Believe

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings”, p.117, Beacon Press

• 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.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Dream, Peace, One Day

  I Have a Dream, delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.

• Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, Freedom, Hate

  Martin Luther King (Jr.) (1968). “I Have a Dream: The Quotations of Martin Luther King, Jr”

• The bombs in Vietnam explode at home; they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, War, Home

  Thomas F. Jackson, Martin Luther King (Jr.) (2007). “From Civil Rights to Human Rights: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Struggle for Economic Justice”, p.319, University of Pennsylvania Press

• Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Peace, Freedom

  1963 Speech at the Lincoln Memorial, 28 Aug, during the March on Washington.

• Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Peace, War

• I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, Block, Order

  Letter from Birmingham Jail, Alabama, 16 Apr. 1963, in Atlantic Monthly Aug. 1963, p. 81

• The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate... Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, Kings, Fear

  "Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?". Book by Martin Luther King Jr., 1967.

• If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Peace

• We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. This may well be mankind's last chance to choose between chaos and community.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, Community, Choices

• Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love, Life, Marriage

  Martin Luther King (Jr.), Alex Ayres (1993). “The Wisdom of Martin Luther King, Jr”, Plume

• We have guided missiles and misguided men.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, War, Science

  Strength to Love ch. 7 (1963)

• Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, War, Mean

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “A Time to Break Silence: The Essential Works of Martin Luther King, Jr., for Students”, p.67, Beacon Press

• I am convinced that love is the most durable power in the world. It is not an expression of impractical idealism, but of practical realism. Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, love is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization. To return hate for hate does nothing but intensify the existence of evil in the universe. Someone must have sense enough and religion enough to cut off the chain of hate and evil, and this can only be done through love.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, Hate, War

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