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

Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism... We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now.

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

Hatred darkens life; love illumines it.

We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak.

Truth is not to be found either in traditional capitalism or in Marxism. Each represents a partial truth. Historically, capitalism failed to discern the truth in collective enterprise and Marxism failed to see the truth in individual enterprise.

Nonviolence is the most potent technique for oppressed people. Unearned suffering is redemptive.