I say to you that our goal is freedom, and I believe we are going to get there because however much she strays away from it, the goal of America is freedom.

Everyone has an opportunity to be great because everyone has an opportunity to serve.

I oppose the war in Vietnam because I love America. I speak out against it not in anger but with anxiety and sorrow in my heart, and above all with a passionate desire to see our beloved country stand as a moral example of the world.

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

We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.

By nonviolent resistance, the Negro can also enlist all men of good will in his struggle for equality.

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.