The richer we have become materially, the poorer we become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly in the air like birds and swim in the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.

A social movement that only moves people is merely a revolt. A movement that changes both people and institutions is a revolution.

Capitalism is always in danger of inspiring men to be more concerned about making a living than making a life. We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles, rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to humanity-thus capitalism can lead to a practical materialism that is as pernicious as the materialism taught by communism.

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.

The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one.

Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.

Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated.

We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.

Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.

Lukewarm acceptance is more bewildering than outright rejection.

There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth.

When I am angry I can write, pray, and preach well, for then my whole temperament is quickened, my understanding sharpened, and all mundane vexations and temptations depart.

No individual or nation can stand out boasting of being independent. We are interdependent.

I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the way our world is made.

As long as diseases are rampant and millions of people in this world cannot expect to live more than twenty-eight or thirty years, I can never be totally healthy even if I just got a good checkup at Mayo Clinic.

 As long as there is poverty in the world I can never be rich, even if I have a billion dollars.

The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.

We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society. 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.

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.

One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.

The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be… The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

But whatever my doubts, however heavy the burden, I feel that I must accept the task of helping to make this nation and this world a better place to live in – for all men, black and white alike.