Curtailment of free speech is rationalized on grounds that a more compelling American tradition forbids criticism of the government when the nation is at war... Nothing can be more destructive of our fundamental democratic traditions than the vicious effort to silence dissenters.

It is cheerful to God when you rejoice or laugh from the bottom of your heart.

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.

I'm concerned about justice. I'm concerned about brotherhood. I'm concerned about truth. And when one is concerned about these, he can never advocate violence.

Perhaps the worst sin in life is knowing right and not doing it.

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.

I want to be the white man's brother, not his brother-in-law.