A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.

I was not afraid of the words of the violent, but of the silence of the honest.

Ten thousand fools proclaim themselves into obscurity, while one wise man forgets himself into immortality.

I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the eighth century prophets left their little villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns; and just as the Apostle Paul left his little village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to practically every hamlet and city of the Graeco-Roman world, I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.

You can kill the dreamer, but you can't kill the dream.

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.

We know of no more crucial civil rights issue facing Congress today than the need to increase the federal minimum wage and extend its coverage.