Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and leader of the civil rights movement in The United States of America. Martin Luther King Jr. will be remembered not only for his tireless commitment to the cause of equality for African Americans but also for his profound and powerful speeches that still move and inspire people to this day.

I have put together for you a collection of 40 of his most inspirational, motivational and thought provoking quotes. Martin Luther King’s words of wisdom are as important and relevant now as they were when he first said them over fifty years ago.

1. If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way. – Martin Luther King Jr

2. I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear. – Martin Luther King Jr

3. 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. – Martin Luther King Jr

4. Mankind must put and end to war or war will put an end to mankind. – Martin Luther King Jr

5. An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. – Martin Luther King Jr

6. The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important. – Martin Luther King Jr

7. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. – Martin Luther King Jr

8. Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. – Martin Luther King Jr

9. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men. – Martin Luther King Jr

10. Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness. – Martin Luther King Jr

11. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. – Martin Luther King Jr

12. Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better. – Martin Luther King Jr

13. Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’ – Martin Luther King Jr

14. You will change your mind; You will change your looks; You will change your smile,laugh, and ways but no matter what you change, you will always be you. – Martin Luther King Jr

15. If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward. – Martin Luther King Jr

16. There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right. – Martin Luther King Jr

17. I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits. – Martin Luther King Jr

18. No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they’d die for. – Martin Luther King Jr

19. Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals. – Martin Luther King Jr

20. We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear. – Martin Luther King Jr

21. Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself. – Martin Luther King Jr

22. Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others. – Martin Luther King Jr

23. No person has the right to rain on your dreams. – Martin Luther King Jr

24. Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. – Martin Luther King Jr

25. Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a constant attitude. – Martin Luther King Jr

26. I am not interested in power for power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good. – Martin Luther King Jr

27. The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people. – Martin Luther King Jr

28. That old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind. – Martin Luther King Jr

29. People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other. – Martin Luther King Jr

30. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. – Martin Luther King Jr

31. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. – Martin Luther King Jr

32. The time is always right to do what is right. – Martin Luther King Jr

33. When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! – Martin Luther King Jr

34. I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. – Martin Luther King Jr

35. Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. If you can’t be a highway, just be a trail. If you can’t be a sun, be a star. For it isn’t by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are. – Martin Luther King Jr

36. Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend. – Martin Luther King Jr

37. We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now. – Martin Luther King Jr

38. Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal. – Martin Luther King Jr

39. Means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. – Martin Luther King Jr

40. Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase. – Martin Luther King Jr

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Thank you 🙂