Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, in Montgomery, Alabama, from 1954 to 1960. Everyone knows about Rev. King’s work after 1960, but many forget that his work as a reformer that changed America began with, and grew out of, his call to serve as the pastor of a congregation.
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I’ve decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.
We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.
We may have all come on different ships, but we’re all in the same boat now.
The time is always right for doing what is right.
Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, “What are you doing for others?”
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.
Everyone can be great because everyone can serve.
I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose ultimate hope.
Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.
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.
Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.
Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ 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 because conscience tells one it is right.
If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as 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.
History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people… In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.
We must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools.
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.
A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.
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Amos 5:24 — Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
Galatians 3:28 — There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
I John 4:15-21 — If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Colossians 3:12-14 — Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
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A DOXOLOGY BY REV. KING: And now unto him who is able to keep us from falling and lift us from the dark valley of despair to the bright mountain of hope, from the midnight of desperation to the daybreak of joy; to him be the power and authority, forever and ever. Amen.
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It is well known that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a tremendous speaker as the voice of the Civil Rights movement. Before that time, and all during his work in the movement, he was also a terrific Gospel preacher. Here are three of King’s sermons. Many more can be found on Youtube.
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