We celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day this week. This marks another opportunity for intentional reflection on Dr. King’s vision of justice and racial reconciliation. In the United States we have a challenging history around racism. From Pre-Civil War slavery, to segregation under Jim Crow Laws, to the ongoing racial tensions felt in our day, it is important to remember from where we have come and where we still need to go.
As a means of remembering well today so we can move forward tomorrow, I offer 20 of my favorite Quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King on this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
“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.”
“Life’s most persistent and urgent questions is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”
“Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
“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.”
“Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
“Justice too long delayed is justice denied.”
“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy to a friend.”
“People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”
“Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.”
“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
“The time is always right to do the right thing.”
“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.’”
“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
“I submit to you that if a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.”
As we celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, we also want to celebrate his vision of justice and racial reconciliation. May we keep Dr. King’s dream alive in the year ahead as we play our part in working for justice and loving our neighbors.
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