Music is the best consolation for a despaired man

The problem with hatred and violence is that they intensity the fears of the white majority, and leave them less ashamed of their prejudices toward Negroes.

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.

Violence brings only temporary victories; violence, by creating many more social problems than it solves, never brings permanent peace.

I know that God is not going to willfully hurt us. Why there is suffering is the business of the Lord, but He never seems to give us more than we can bear.

Nonviolence is the most potent technique for oppressed people. Unearned suffering is redemptive.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.