All life is interrelated. The agony of the poor impoverishes the rich; the betterment of the poor enriches the rich. We are inevitably our brother's keeper because we are our brother's brother. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.

We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience.

A good many observers have remarked that if equality could come at once, the Negro would not be ready for it. I submit that the white American is even more unprepared.

Power at its best is love implementing the demand of justice.

If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos.

The potential beauty of human life is constantly made ugly by man's ever-recurring song of retaliation.

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.