Even when the polls are open to all, Negroes have shown themselves too slow to exercise their voting privileges. There must be a concerted effort on the part of Negro leaders to arouse their people from their apathetic indifference.... In the past, apathy was a moral failure. Today, it is a form of moral and political suicide.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.

If the Negro is to achieve the goal of integration, he must organize himself into a militant and nonviolent mass movement.

A third reason why we should love our enemies is that love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. We never get rid of an enemy by meeting hate with hate; we get rid of an enemy by getting rid of enmity. By its very nature, hate destroys and tears down; by its very nature, love creates and builds up. Love transforms with redemptive power.

My parents would always tell me that I should not hate the white man, but that it was my duty as a Christian to love him.

The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven.