Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes About Nonviolence

• Nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Powerful, Passivity Is, Social Transformation

  Martin Luther King Jr.'s Nobel Peace Prize Speech in Oslo, Norway, www.nobelprize.org. December 10, 1964.

• At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love, Thought Provoking, Principles

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “"In a Single Garment of Destiny": A Global Vision of Justice”, p.100, Beacon Press

• 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 method of nonviolence seeks not to humiliate and not to defeat the oppressor, but it seeks to win his friendship and his understanding. And thereby and therefore the aftermath of this method is reconciliation.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Winning, Understanding, Aftermath

• Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love, Peace, Kings

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings”, p.115, Beacon Press

• We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Struggle, Police Violence, Discipline

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

• Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, Powerful, Cutting

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2011). “Why We Can't Wait”, p.18, Beacon Press

• Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, Revenge, Men

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings”, p.115, Beacon Press

• World peace through nonviolent means is neither absurd nor unattainable. All other methods have failed. Thus we must begin anew. Nonviolence is a good starting point. Those of us who believe in this method can be voices of reason, sanity, and understanding amid the voices of violence, hatred, and emotion. We can very well set a mood of peace out of which a system of peace can be built.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, War, Believe

• Resistance and nonviolence are not in themselves good. There is another element that must be present in our struggle that then makes our resistance and nonviolence truly meaningful. That element is reconciliation. Our ultimate end must be the creation of the beloved community.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Meaningful, Struggle, Beloved Community

• Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when it helps us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Brother, Compassion, Views

  Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence, Delivered 4 April 1967, Riverside Church, New York City

• If your opponent has a conscience, then follow Gandhi and nonviolence. But if your enemy has no conscience like Hitler, then follow Bonhoeffer.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Enemy, Opponents, Bonhoeffer

• The way of acquiescence leads to moral and spiritual suicide. The way of violence leads to bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. But, the way of nonviolence leads to redemption and the creation of the beloved community.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Suicide, Spiritual, Beloved Community

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “"In a Single Garment of Destiny": A Global Vision of Justice”, p.75, Beacon Press

• Nonviolence is absolute commitment to the way of love. Love is not emotional bash; it is not empty sentimentalism. It is the active outpouring of one's whole being into the being of another.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, War, Commitment

• Unconditional love will have the final word in reality.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, Kings, Truth

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

• In our struggle against racial segregation in Montgomery, Alabama, I came to see at a very early stage that a synthesis of Gandhi's method of nonviolence and the Christian ethic of love is the best weapon available to Negroes for this struggle for freedom and human dignity. It may well be that the Gandhian approach will bring about a solution to the race problem in America. His spirit is a continual reminder to oppressed people that it is possible to resist evil and yet not resort to violence.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Christian, Struggle, Love Is

• It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it's nonviolence or nonexistence. That is where we are today.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Choices, World, Today

  I've Been to the Mountaintop, delivered 3 April 1968, Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters), Memphis, Tennessee

• Please be peaceful. We believe in law and order. We are not advocating violence, I want you to love your enemies... for what we are doing is right, what we are doing is just -- and God is with us.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Believe, Order, Law

• Violence ends up defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Brutality, Survivor, Violence

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2010). “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story”, p.225, Beacon Press

• The choice is not between violence and nonviolence but between nonviolence and nonexistence.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Powerful, War, Greatness

• As we have seen, the first public expression of disenchantment with nonviolence arose around the question of 'self-defense.' In a sense this is a false issue, for the right to defend one's home and one's person when attacked has been guaranteed through the ages by common law.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Home, Self, Expression

• A second basic fact that characterizes nonviolence is that it does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his friendship and understanding.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Winning, Beloved Community, Understanding

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “"In a Single Garment of Destiny": A Global Vision of Justice”, p.100, Beacon Press

• I plan to stand by nonviolence, because I have found it to be a philosophy of life that regulates not only my dealings in the struggle for racial justice, but also my dealings with people, and with my own self.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, Philosophy, Struggle

  Kenneth L. Smith, Martin Luther King (Jr.), Ira G. Zepp (1986). “Search for the beloved community: the thinking of Martin Luther King, Jr”, Univ Pr of Amer

• I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Mean, Jail, Use

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2011). “Why We Can't Wait”, p.69, Beacon Press

• Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  March On Washington, Soul, Height

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

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