If I sought to answer all of the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would be engaged in little else in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work.

A right delayed is a right denied.

Segregation...not only harms one physically but injures one spiritually...It scars the soul...It is a system which forever stares the segregated in the face, saying 'You are less than...''You are not equal to...'

Education without direction is a one-sided social value. Direct action without education is a meaningless expression of pure energy.

But life at its best is a creative synthesis of opposites in fruitful harmony.

When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.

Freedom only comes through persistent revolt, through persistent agitation, through persistently rising up against the system of evil.