In order to be true to one's conscience and true to God, a righteous man has no alternative but to refuse to cooperate with an evil system.

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

The sooner our society admits that the Negro Revolution is no momentary outburst soon to subside into placid passivity, the easier the future will be for us all.

Our destiny is tied up with the destiny of America.

The words 'bad timing' came to be ghosts haunting our every move in Birmingham. Yet people who used this argument were ignorant of the background of our planning...they did not realize that it was ridiculous to speak of timing when the clock of history showed that the Negro had already suffered one hundred years of delay.

The great majority of Americans are suspended between these opposing attitudes. They are uneasy with injustice but unwilling yet to pay a significant price to eradicate it.

That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.