15 Inspirational Martin Luther King Jr Quotes

In honor of his birthday, we would like to highlight some of Martin Luther King Jr quotes that have inspired many activists, writers, heroes, world leaders and ordinary people around the world. King was a well-known and well-loved Baptist minister who helped shape the history of Americans during the 50’s and the 60’s. Through his writings and speeches, he inspired people from all walks of life and advocated non-violent means of effecting change in the American society. Since 1986, his birthday has been established as a U.S. Federal holiday. Even after his death, his thoughts are immortalized in the minds of those who take inspiration from him.

Here are 15 inspirational Martin Luther King Jr quotes:

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.

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.

Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.

Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illumines it.

I have decided to stick to love…Hate is too great a burden to bear.

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.

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

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.

A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.

No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they’d die for.

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