My study of Gandhi convinced me that true pacifism is not nonresistance to evil, but nonviolent resistance to evil. Between the two positions, there is a world of difference. Gandhi resisted evil with as much vigor and power as the violent resister, but True pacifism is not unrealistic submission to evil power. It is rather a courageous confrontation of evil by the power of love. . . .

[People] don't see that there's a great deal of a difference between nonresistance to evil and nonviolent resistance.

The reason I can't follow the old eye-for-an-eye philosophy is that it ends up leaving everyone blind.

America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds.'

But we are gravely mistaken to think that Christianity protects us from the pain and agony of mortal existence. Christianity has always insisted that the cross we bear precedes the crown we wear. To be a Christian, one must take up his cross, with all of its difficulties and agonizing and tragedy-packed content, and carry it until that very cross leaves its marks upon us and redeems us to that more excellent way which comes only through suffering.

Even if our motives are presently misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom.

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.