No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity

We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and for justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.

unearned suffering is redemptive.

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.

[People] don't see that there's a great deal of a difference between nonresistance to evil and nonviolent resistance.

The movement for equality and justice can only be a success if it has both a mass and militant character; the barriers to be overcome require both.

Many of the ugly pages of American history have been obscured and forgotten. A society is always eager to cover misdeeds with a cloak of forgetfulness, but no society can fully repress an ugly past when the ravages persist into the present. America owes a debt of justice which it has only begun to pay. If it loses the will to finish or slackens in its determination, history will recall its crimes and the country that would be great will lack the most indispensable element of greatness — justice.