"I criticize America because I love her. I want her to stand as a moral example to the world."

We as Christians have a mandate to be nonconformists.

The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.

The majority of the Negroes who took part in the year-long boycott of Montgomery's buses were poor and untutored; but they understood the essence of the Montgomery movement; one elderly woman summed it up for the rest. When asked after several weeks of walking whether she was tired, she answered: "My feet is tired, but my soul is at rest.

The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important.

I often feel like saying, when I hear the question 'People aren't ready,' that it's like telling a person who is trying to swim, 'Don't jump in that water until you learn how to swim.' When actually you will never learn how to swim until you get in the water. And I think people have to have an opportunity to develop themselves and govern themselves.

One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty.