19 Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes That Still Resonate Today
Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a day to reflect on the life and legacy of civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr..
A Baptist minister from Atlanta, Georgia, King rose to lead the nascent civil rights movement in the late 1950s, fighting racial segregation, voter disenfranchisement and economic injustice through nonviolent protest. King organized several historic demonstrations throughout the 50s and early 60s, including the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the 1963 March on Washington—the latter of which led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
King was also a gifted orator, galvanizing thousands across the country with stirring speeches on racial injustice, workers’ rights, war and poverty. Below, you’ll find 19 quotes from King that still ring true today.
- “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhumane.”
2. “There are three evils in our nation. It’s not only racism, but economic exploitation would be one, and then militarism.”
3. “It is a crime for people to live in this rich nation and receive starvation wages.”
4. “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.”
5. “A man of conscience can never be a consensus leader.”
6. “Non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as cooperation with good.”
7. “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.”
8. “All labor has dignity.”
9. “When a nation becomes obsessed with the guns of war, it loses its social perspective.”
10. “We must also realize that the problems of racial injustice and economic injustice cannot be solved without a radical redistribution of political and economic power.”
11. “There is something about love that builds and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive.”
12. “It is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.”
13. “Anyone who feels that he can live alone is sleeping through a revolution.”
14. “Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for our rights!”
15. “The only way to redeem the soul of America is to remove or to eradicate racism in all of its dimensions.”
16. “We can’t get rid of slums and poverty without it costing the nation something.”
17. “The time is always right to do what is right.”
18. “[America] has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality and humanity.”
19. “The tragedy is that we have a Congress with a Senate that has a minority of misguided Senators who will use the filibuster to keep the majority of people from even voting.”
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