Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes About Soul

• 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.

  Change, Uplifting, Spiritual

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

• One day the absurdity of the almost universal human belief in the slavery of other animals will be palpable. We shall then have discovered our souls and become worthier of sharing this planet with them.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Animal, Soul, One Day

• Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love, Inspirational, Marriage

• A religion true to its nature must also be concerned about man's social conditions....A ny religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them is a dry-as-dust religion.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Men, Dust, Soul

• 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.

  Inspirational, Courage, Integrity

• The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be... The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Heart, Creativity, Creative

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

• There may come a time when it will be possible for you to humiliate your worst enemy or even to defeat him, but in order to love the enemy you must not do it... The Greek language has another word [for love]. It calls it agape. Agape is more than romantic love. Agape is more than friendship. Agape is understanding, redemptive goodwill for all men. Agape is an overflowing love, a spontaneous love, which seeks nothing in return. And theologians would say that it is the love of God operating in the human heart. When you rise to love on this level you love all men, not because you like them, not because their ways appeal to you, not because they are worthful to you, but you love all men because God loves them. And you rise to the noble heights of loving the person who does the evil deed while hating the deed that the person does. And I think this is what Jesus means when he says, “Love your enemies.”

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Life, Jesus, Hate

  "Loving Your Enemies". Sermon Delivered at the Detroit Council of Churches' Noon Lenten Services, kinginstitute.stanford.edu. March 07, 1961.

• The use of violence in our struggle would be both impractical and immoral. To meet hate with retaliatory hate would do nothing but intensify the existence of evil in the universe. Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love; we must meet physical force with soul force. Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate the white man, but to win his friendship and understanding.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Hate, Struggle, Winning

  Martin Luther King (Jr.) (1964). “A Martin Luther King Treasury”

• I'll tell you, I've seen the lightning flash. I've heard the thunder roll. I felt sin-breakers dashing, trying to conquer my soul. But I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Jesus, Fighting, Voice

  "Why Jesus Called A Man A Fool". Speech delivered at Mount Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church, Chicago, Illinois, August 27, 1967.

• The nonviolent approach does not immediately change the heart of the oppressor. It first does something to the hearts and souls of those committed to it. It gives them new self-respect; it calls up resources of strength and courage they did not know they had.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Respect, Determination, Heart

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

• We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will and we will still love you....Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and, as difficult as it is, we will still love you.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love, Children, Home

  "Loving Your Enemies". Sermon by Martin Luther King, Jr. at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama, www.skeptictank.org. November 17, 1957.

• Our goal is to create a beloved community," said Dr. King, "and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Kings, Beloved Community, Goal

• Pity may represent little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, but true sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one's soul.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Sympathy, True Friend, Giving

  Martin Luther King Jr. (1963). “Strength to Love”

• Somebody must have sense enough to meet hate with love. Somebody must have sense enough to meet physical force with soul force. If we will but try this way, we will be able to change these conditions and yet at the same time win the hearts and souls of those who have kept these conditions alive a way as old as the insights of Jesus of Nazareth, as modern as the techniques of Mohandas K. Gandhi. There is another way.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Jesus, Hate, Heart

• I question and soul-search constantly into myself to be as certain as I can that I am fulfilling the true meaning of my work, that I am maintaining my sense of purpose, that I am holding fast to my ideals, that I am guiding my people in the right direction.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  People, Soul, Maintaining

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• 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.

• Segregation...not only harms one physically but injures one spiritually...It scars the soul...It is a system which forever stares the segregated in the face, saying 'You are less than...''You are not equal to...'

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Forever, Soul, Faces

• It is my hope that as the Negro plunges deeper into the quest for freedom and justice he will plunge even deeper into the philosophy of non-violence. The Negro all over the South must come to the point that he can say to his white brother: "We will match your capacity to inflict suffering with our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. We will not hate you, but we will not obey your evil laws. We will soon wear you down by pure capacity to suffer".

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Brother, Hate, Philosophy

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

• Another reason why we must love our enemies is that hate scars the soul and distorts the personality.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Hate, Personality, Soul

  Martin Luther King (Jr.) (2012). “A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings”, p.49, Beacon Press

• There is something in the soul that cries out for freedom.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Soul, Cry

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “"In a Single Garment of Destiny": A Global Vision of Justice”, p.49, Beacon Press

• The majority of the Negroes who took part in the year-long boycott of Montgomery's buses were poor and untutored; but they understood the essence of the Montgomery movement; one elderly woman summed it up for the rest. When asked after several weeks of walking whether she was tired, she answered: "My feet is tired, but my soul is at rest.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Tired, Essence, Feet

  Martin Luther King (Jr.) (1964). “A Martin Luther King Treasury”

• My soul is too glad and too great to be at heart the enemy of any man

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Heart, Men, Soul

• Will we march only to the music of time, or will we, risking criticism and abuse, march to the soul-saving music of eternity?

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Soul, Abuse, Criticism

  Martin Luther King (Jr.) (2012). “A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings”, p.20, Beacon Press

• If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the hopes of men the world over.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Men, America, Long

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

• True sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one's soul.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Sympathy, Giving, Soul

  Martin Luther King Jr. (1963). “Strength to Love”

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