Quotations from
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [1929-68]

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the central figure of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s in America. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, and a posthumous Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. He was assassinated by a lone gunman on 4 April 1968 on a motel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee as he prepared to attend a rally in support of striking sanitation workers.

Links are provided below for further investigation.
The references to WMail issues indicate quotes that appeared in the free monthly 'WMail' ezine
connected with the revolutionary "Working Minds Philosophy of Empowerment" created by G.E. Nordell.

After WMail Issue #72 in October 2007, essays & quotations & news were posted to the Dateline Chamesa blog

Martin Luther King, Jr. entry at Wikipedia

"Letter From Birmingham Jail" mimeograph document, 16 April 1963
text • Wikipedia •

the 'I Have A Dream' speech in Washington, DC on 28 August 1963
transcript • video excerpt [5:10] • full video [17:28] • audio excerpt [6:25] • Wikipedia

portion of the 'How long? Not long!' speech in Montgomery, Alabama DC on 25 March 1965
video excerpt [2:00] free at YouTube

chronolgy of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life {MLK Institute at Stanford}

"A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr." [1990] Edited by James M. Washington HarperOne pb [12/90] for $16.31

“Until all are free, none are free.”  {Issues #19 & #44}
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“Our lives begin to end the day [that] we become silent about things that matter.”  {Issue #37}
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“Power is the ability to achieve purpose. Power is the ability to effect change.”  {Issue #56}
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“We live together as rational human beings or die together as fools.”  {Issue #65}
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“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”  {blog 10/2007}
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“I'd rather be dead than afraid.” on 4 April 1968 (the day of his assassination)  {blog 4/2008}
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“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”  {blog 5/2008}
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“Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change
the heart, but they can restrain the heartless.”  {blog 9/2008}
“It may be true that the law cannot change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless.”  {blog 1/2012}
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“Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?'. Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?'.
Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?'. But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?'.
And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic,
nor popular but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right.”  {blog 8/2009}
•      •
“What good is having the right to sit at a lunch counter if you can't afford to buy a hamburger?”  {blog 4/2010}
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“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”  {blog 10/2010}
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“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”  {blog 11/2010}
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“Life's most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?”  {blog 1/2011}
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“True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.”  {blog 12/2011}
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“Equality with whites will not solve the problems of either whites or Negroes if it means equality
in a world society stricken by poverty and in a universe doomed to extinction by war.”
from "Where Do We Go From Here", 1968  {blog 12/2011}
•      •
“We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned
the simple art of living together as brothers and sisters.”  {blog 2/2012}
•      •
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate;
only love can do that.”  {blog 2/2012}

Martin Luther King Quotations Not Yet Used on Blog

"The time is always ripe to do right."

"All life is inter-related. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial 'outside agitator' idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds." in "Letter From Birmingham Jail", 16 April 1963

"True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial.
It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."
'Where Do We Go From Here?' speech August 1967

"We must develop a federal program of public works, retraining, and jobs for all - so that none, white or black, will have cause to feel threatened ... There is nothing except shortsightedness to prevent us from guaranteeing an annual minimum and livable income for every American family."
'Where Do We Go From Here?' speech August 1967

"A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth."
'Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence' speech April 1967

"The profit motive, when it is the sole basis of an economic system, encourages a cutthroat competition and selfish ambition that encourages men to be I-centered rather than thou-centered."
'Where Do We Go From Here?' speech August 1967

"Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals."
in "Letter From Birmingham Jail", 16 April 1963

"An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal."
in "Letter From Birmingham Jail", 16 April 1963

"When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."
"A Testament of Hope" posthumously published essay

"There is also the violence of (African Americans) having to live in a community and pay higher consumer prices for goods or higher rents for equivalent housing than are charged in white parts of the city."
"A Testament of Hope" posthumously published essay

"Congress appropriates military funds with alacrity and generosity. It appropriates poverty funds
with miserliness and grudging reluctance. The government is emotionally committed to the war.
It is emotionally hostile to the needs of the poor."
'Domestic Impact of The War in America' speech November 1967

"I do not determine what is right and wrong by looking at the budget of my organization or by
taking a Gallup poll of the majority opinion. Ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher
for consensus but a molder of consensus."
'Domestic Impact of The War in America' speech November 1967

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