Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes About Silence

• History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Sad, Wisdom, Bad Relationship

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

• 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.

• In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Friendship, Wisdom, Kings

  "The Trumpet of Conscience". Martin Luther King, Jr.'s steeler lecture at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, November 17, 1957.

• History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Courage, Integrity, Destiny

  "Letter from Birmingham Jail," 16 Apr. 1963

• I agree with Dante, that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. There comes a time when silence becomes betrayal.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Betrayal, Silence, Neutrality

  "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam". Sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, April 30, 1967.

• The SILENCE of the good people is more DANGEROUS than the BRUTALITY of the bad people

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  People, Silence, Brutality

• It's not the violence of the few that scares me, it's the silence of the many

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Silence, Scare, Violence

• 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.

  Change, Kings, People

• The recent statement of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: "A time comes when silence is betrayal." That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam. Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Betrayal, Night, Agony

  "A Time to Break Silence". Speech at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City, www.deanza.edu. April 04, 1967.

• We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Integrity, Anger, Character

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings”, p.96, Beacon Press

• A time comes when silence is betrayal.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Betrayal, Memorable

  "Beyond Vietnam". Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Speech at Riverside Church in New York City, kinginstitute.stanford.edu. April 4, 1967.

• A time comes when silence is betrayal. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought, within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Betrayal, War, Moving

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

• I was not afraid of the words of the violent, but of the silence of the honest.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Silence, Honest, Violent

• Curtailment of free speech is rationalized on grounds that a more compelling American tradition forbids criticism of the government when the nation is at war... Nothing can be more destructive of our fundamental democratic traditions than the vicious effort to silence dissenters.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  War, Government, Effort

• On the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. "A Time to Break Silence," at Riverside Church

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Journey, Men, Compassion

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “"In a Single Garment of Destiny": A Global Vision of Justice”, p.119, Beacon Press

• It is a strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually time is neutral. It can be used either destructively or constructively. I am coming to feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Time, Ill Will, People

  "The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings".

• A time comes when silence is betrayal. That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift, is approaching spiritual death.I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Uplifting, Spiritual, Betrayal

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

• History will have to recordThat the greatest tragedy of this period of social transitionWas not the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad peopleBut the appalling silence and indifference of the good.Our generation will have to repent notOnly for the words and actions of the children of darknessBut also for the fears and apathy of thechildren of light.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Courage, Children, Light

• The holy passion of friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Sweet, Passion, Silence

• Our generation will not have regretted both perverse crimes, and the eerie silence of the kind

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Our Generation, Eerie, Silence

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