Martin Luther King, Jr.
You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.
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May I stress the need for courageous, intelligent, and dedicated leadership... Leaders of sound integrity. Leaders not in love with publicity, but in love with justice. Leaders not in love with money, but in love with humanity. Leaders who can subject their particular egos to the greatness of the cause.11771178Copy Quote
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.906907Copy Quote
A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.888889Copy Quote
It's not the violence of the few that scares me, it's the silence of the many
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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.676677Copy Quote
A riot is the language of the unheard.
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Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
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Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.599600Copy Quote
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.559560Copy Quote
The time is always right to do what is right.
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In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.
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Let's build bridges, not walls.
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Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'
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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.446447Copy Quote
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. Nothing worthwhile is easy. Your ability to overcome unfavorable situations will provide you with time to demonstrate your true strength and determination for success. Always set your standards high, your greatest achievements lie within the infinite feats you achieve in your life.429430Copy Quote
In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
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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.377378Copy Quote
I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.
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I still believe that standing up for the truth of God is the greatest thing in the world. This is the end (purpose) of life. The end of life is not to be happy. The end of life is not to achieve pleasure and avoid pain. The end of life is to do the will of God, come what may.316317Copy Quote
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.313314Copy Quote
Perhaps the worst sin in life is knowing right and not doing it.
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Quietly endure, silently suffer and patiently wait.
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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 in times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others. In dangerous valleys and hazardous pathways, he will lift some bruised and beaten brother to a higher and more noble life.305306Copy Quote
The richer we have become materially, the poorer we become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly in the air like birds and swim in the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.301302Copy Quote
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.301302Copy Quote
Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
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Peace is not simply the absence of conflict, but the existence of justice for all people.
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Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service.
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We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
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This is the great new problem of mankind. We have inherited a large house, a great ‘world house’ in which we have to live together– black and white, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, Muslim and Hindu– a family unduly separated in ideas, culture and interest, who, because we can never again live apart, must learn somehow to live with each other in peace.235236Copy Quote
We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.
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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.222223Copy Quote
Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.
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Capitalism does not permit an even flow of economic resources. With this system, a small privileged few are rich beyond conscience, and almost all others are doomed to be poor at some level. That's the way the system works. And since we know that the system will not change the rules, we are going to have to change the system.217218Copy Quote
Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.
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I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.188189Copy Quote
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.185186Copy Quote
I admire the good samaritan, but I don't want to be one.I don't want to spend my life picking up people by the side of the road after they have been beaten up and robbed.I want to change the Jericho road, so that everybody has an opportunity for a job, education, security, health.180181Copy Quote
We must learn that passively to accept an unjust system is to cooperate with that system, and thereby to become a participant in its evil.179180Copy Quote
Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.
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The difference between a dreamer and a visionary is that a dreamer has his eyes closed and a visionary has his eyes open170171Copy Quote
The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important.
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We must face the appalling fact that we have been betrayed by both the Democratic and Republican Parties.164165Copy Quote
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
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We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there "is" such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and postive action.158159Copy Quote
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.158159Copy Quote
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.157158Copy Quote
In a real sense all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be... This is the inter-related structure of reality.154155Copy Quote
There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we have the resources to get rid of it.153154Copy Quote
All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.153154Copy Quote
True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that a system that produces beggars needs to be repaved. We are called to be the Good Samaritan, but after you lift so many people out of the ditch you start to ask, maybe the whole road to Jericho needs to be repaved.148149Copy Quote
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
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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?'139140Copy Quote
Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.136137Copy Quote
One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. Every society has its protectors of status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. Today, our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.135136Copy Quote
Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.135136Copy Quote
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.133134Copy Quote
The beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.
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A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.
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Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent.129130Copy Quote
We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers and sisters.128129Copy Quote
Unconditional love will have the final word in reality.
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A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right.
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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.124125Copy Quote
History is the long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily.124125Copy Quote
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.124125Copy Quote
Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
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You can’t reach good ends through evil means, because the means represent the seed and the end represents the tree.121122Copy Quote
Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.121122Copy Quote
‎It is a cruel injustice to tell a bootless man to pull himself up by his bootstraps.
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I want to be the white man's brother, not his brother-in-law.
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History is a great teacher. Now everyone knows that the labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it. By raising the living standards of millions, labor miraculously created a market for industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed of levels of production. Those who attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them.116117Copy Quote
We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love.
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If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.114115Copy Quote
Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.114115Copy Quote
We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.113114Copy Quote
This will be the day when we shall bring into full realization the dream of American democracy - a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed; a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few.113114Copy Quote
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.113114Copy Quote
Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.113114Copy Quote
27 Best Cesar Chavez Quotes on Education and Success
There is no substitute for hard work, 23 or 24 hours a day. And there is no substitute for patience and acceptance - Cesar Chavez Quotes
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34 Best Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes on Love and Life (INSPIRATIONAL)
The greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail - Ralph Waldo Emerson
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31 Best Mark Cuban Quotes for Success
I was poor as fuck living on the floor and I had already won. It has nothing to do with money - Mark Cuban.
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