May I stress the need for courageous, intelligent, and dedicated leadership... Leaders of sound integrity. Leaders not in love with publicity, but in love with justice. Leaders not in love with money, but in love with humanity. Leaders who can subject their particular egos to the greatness of the cause.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

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.

Before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you've depended on more than half of the world.

I have DECIDED to love. If you are seeking the highest good, I think you can find it through love. GOD is love.

There is nothing in all the world greater than freedom. It is worth paying for; it is worth going to jail for. I would rather be a free pauper than a rich slave. I would rather die in abject poverty with my convictions than live in inordinate riches with the lack of self respect.

The Negro needs the white man to free him from his fears. The white man needs the Negro to free him from his guilt.