I could never adjust to the separate waiting rooms, separate eating places, separate rest rooms, partly because the separate was always unequal, and partly because the very idea of separation did something to my sense of dignity and self-respect.

If we get setbacks and if something happens where the Civil Rights Bill is watered down, for instance, if the Negro feels that he can do nothing but move from one ghetto to another and one slum to another, the despair and the disappointment will be so great that it will be very difficult to keep the struggle disciplined and nonviolent.

With the tough mind, there must also be a tender heart.

By its very nature, hate destroys and tears down; by its very nature, love creates and builds up.

A second way that oppressed people sometimes deal with oppression is to resort to physical violence and corroding hatred.

We still have a choice today: nonviolence coesistence or violent coannihilation.

Unarmed love is the most powerful force in all the world.