I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.

Education without direction is a one-sided social value. Direct action without education is a meaningless expression of pure energy.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.

I am convinced that love is the most durable power in the world. It is not an expression of impractical idealism, but of practical realism. Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, love is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization. To return hate for hate does nothing but intensify the existence of evil in the universe. Someone must have sense enough and religion enough to cut off the chain of hate and evil, and this can only be done through love.

The potential beauty of human life is constantly made ugly by man's ever-recurring song of retaliation.

Violence brings only temporary victories; violence, by creating many more social problems than it solves, never brings permanent peace.

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.