Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow-ripening fruit.

Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.

A friend to all is a friend to none.

He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.

He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.

Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.

It is of the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it.

Happiness is activity.

Happiness is an expression of the soul in considered actions.

Happiness is the settling of the soul into its most appropriate spot.

Happiness depends upon ourselves.

Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.

Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

All my successes have been built on my failures.

Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.

Anyone who attempts is not a failure.

No man is defeated without until he has first been defeated within.

If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.  

I don’t believe in failure. It is not failure if you enjoyed the process.

Make new mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before.

A man can’t ride your back unless it’s bent.

When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.

I want to be the white man’s brother, not his brother-in-law.

True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.

Darkness is only driven out with light, not more darkness.

Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

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.

A right delayed is a right denied.

The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.

We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.

Whatever career you may choose for yourself – doctor, lawyer, teacher – let me propose an avocation to be pursued along with it.

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.

Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts.

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.

The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.

There is no deficit in human resources; the deficit is in human will.

I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.

I was not afraid of the words of the violent, but of the silence of the honest.

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever.

Means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.

Without justice, there can be no peace.

We must shift the arms race into a ‘peace race’.

Music is the best consolation for a despaired man.