Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.

I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham.

Violence ends up defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.

Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.

Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.

Now let me say that the next thing we must be concerned about if we are to have peace on earth and good will toward men is the nonviolent affirmation of the sacredness of all human life. Every man is somebody because he is a child of God.