“Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. I am not unmindful of the fact that violence often brings about momentary results. Nations have frequently won their independence in battle. But in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace.”

“I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.”

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

“Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when it helps us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.”

“A right delayed is a right denied.”

“The only compensation which war offers for its manifold mischiefs, is in the great personal qualities to which it gives scope and occasion.”

“Laws just or unjust may govern men's actions. Tyrannies may restrain or regulate their words. The machinery of propaganda may pack their minds with falsehood and deny them truth for many generations of time. But the soul of man thus held in trance or frozen in a long night can be awakened by a spark coming from God knows where and in a moment the whole structure of lies and oppression is on trial for its life.”

“It's natural to sit down but the human spirit within us can make us get up.”