Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes: Famous Quotations From MLK's Speeches, Letters And Sermons (VIDEO)

Martin Luther King Jr., Baptist minister and civil rights activist, is a celebrated figure in American history. A master of oratory, King delivered many famous speeches, sermons and wrote letters that played a huge role in shaping American conscience and continue to inspire millions today.

[Scroll down for a sampling of his most famous speeches including "I Have a Dream," and "I've Been to the Mountaintop."]

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2012, HuffPost Religion presents a collection of 11 famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

1. "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.'… 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. I have a dream today." I Have A Dream, 1963

2. "From every mountainside, let freedom ring. When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, 'Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'" I Have A Dream, 1963

3. "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction...The chain reaction of evil -- hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars -- must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation." Strength To Love, 1963

4. "I am coming to feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than the people of goodwill. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy, and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity." Letter From Birmingham Jail, 1963

5. "The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state." Strength To Love, 1963

6. "When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality." Beyond Vietnam, 1967

7. "Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor in America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours." The Trumpet of Conscience, 1967

8. "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967

9. "The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967

10. "I have decided to love. If you are seeking the highest good, I think you can find it through love. And the beautiful thing is that we are moving against wrong when we do it, because John was right, God is love. He who hates does not know God, but he who has love has the key that unlocks the door to the meaning of ultimate reality." Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967

11. "Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land." I've Been To The Mountaintop, April 3, 1968

Click through the slideshow to watch clips of Martin Luther King Jr.'s most famous speeches and sermons:

Comments

[humptydumptywaspushed]

11:48 AM on 01/21/2013

i didnt see
"where is my food stamps"

[Caneo Coleman]

10:21 AM on 03/08/2013

I'm sure you're getting them...

[scribe2b]

11:46 AM on 01/21/2013

Dr King was never arrogant nor condescending. His humility was his life. This statue is an insult to the sincere dignity of a man who gave his life to serve others, even to serve those misguided souls who hated him.

[radrink]

11:26 AM on 01/21/2013

i like this one :

“When scientific power outruns moral power, we end up with guided missiles and misguided men.”

i wish our president would read it

[hippyhay73]

11:22 AM on 01/21/2013

I still find it hard to believe that the statue to honor Dr. King was made in China.To me it's an UN American way to honor an American hero!

[rayinprague]

11:39 AM on 01/21/2013

It is a truly awful monument. I have never seen a picture of Dr King in that kind of pose.

[I B THANKING]

09:00 PM on 11/18/2012

My favorite MLK quote:

“Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality… Hate destroys a man’s sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

(Picture: 1958, Dr. King arrested in Montgomery, AL)

http://www.therootedman.com/post/12292175570/like-an-unchecked-cancer-hate-corrodes-the

[I B THANKING]

08:39 PM on 11/18/2012

“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. So when Jesus says “Love your enemies,” he is setting forth a profound and ultimately inescapable admonition. Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies– or else? The chain reaction of evil, hate begetting hate, wars producing wars must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.”

Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love

[pbr90]

11:12 AM on 06/03/2012

Getting religion out of politics would be the first step toward real freedom and liberty for all in the U.S. or anywhere. America needs no theocracy, and no monarchy, and no dictatorship to survive. All of those crutches are meant to give philosophy the edge over human judgment considered more worthy than people, their needs, desires, and common sense.

[LCSWquilter]

11:58 PM on 02/01/2012

I've been to the MLK Memorial in Washington, DC and am apalled by what a poor reflection it is of MLK himself. It does not befit the greatness of the man. It was astonishing to see a white National Park Service Guard give a very basic guided tour to a group of African-Americans, explaining to them the quotes of Dr. King that are written on the wall behind the statue. Everything about the monument is disturbingly incongruous -- and I'm caucasian.

[rayinprague]

11:41 AM on 01/21/2013

It was carved in China and shipped over in pieces to save money. A real disgrace.

[Nate35]

07:58 PM on 02/01/2012

If only his memorial wasn't ugly as hell...

[Crisdean Wulver]

06:01 PM on 01/16/2012

Have you ever asked yourself why Republicans hate Martin Luther King Jr. so much?

It's simple. The Republican party was the party of Lincoln. After the Civil War, it was almost impossible to find a Democrat in the South. By the time of the Civil Rights movement, the South was still overwhelmingly Democratic.

When the Democratic party decided to get behind the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Southern Democrats finally started leaving the party. And when Barry Goldwater ran, there was a huge exodus of Southern Democrats to the Republican party. This was the start of a new era of partisan polarization that has only gotten worse over time.

But the ancestors of those Democrats turned Republican are still around. And they still hate Martin Luther King, just like their Souther forefathers did. That's why Republicans today hate Martin Luther King. It's an Old South tradition that has spread to the rest of the party over the intervening years.

[Crisdean Wulver]

06:26 PM on 01/16/2012

Typo. I meant to say it was almost impossible to find a Republican in the South after the Civil War/

[I B THANKING]

08:16 PM on 11/18/2012

Racist Whites, mostly men hated King, and they could be found in both political parties.

[Crisdean Wulver]

08:33 PM on 11/18/2012

I mean to say that after the Civil War it was almost impossible to find a *Republican*, because that was the party of Lincoln. But civil rights legislation drove Southerners from the party. 

[Crisdean Wulver]

05:50 PM on 01/16/2012

I loved the "little known facts" video, but the sound track was terrible! It sounded like the sound track they would play in a documentary about a serial killer!

[kibibi]

04:18 PM on 01/16/2012

I'm waiting for any republican even acknowledge they even remember MLK day, doubt it, because if I remember correctly, MLK was also called a, MARXIST, COMMUNIST, SOCIALIST and most of all, UN-AMERICAN,, when will we as Americans learn there is nothing new under the sun, especially when it comes to the right in this country, if they can't win the argument, they resort to name calling to change the subject to distract so we forget the very thing King and others like him were fighting for, does anyone remember King stood for LABOR rights, as long as we're told to only think about a Dream and not the words of action we the people will always be caught sleeping never waking from the nightmare hoisted upon us by the right,, WAKE UP EVERYBODY!

[1motorpsycho]

04:32 AM on 03/16/2012

Well said. Those names are all very familiar. Then add a few new ones to the list. Arizona was forced to even acknowledge MLK birthday just recently. Was it the NBA that helped make it finally happen not long ago?

[BeanTowner3985]

11:47 AM on 01/21/2013

MARXIST, COMMUNIST, SOCIALIST & UNAMERICAN !!! MLK was called ALL these things ! BY J.Edgar HOOVER !!!!

[Former Icon]

04:12 PM on 01/16/2012

"Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted."

[mrtinnc]

02:48 PM on 01/16/2012

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

Martin Luther King, Jr.

[woodshoe]

11:53 AM on 01/16/2012

"Anatole France once said, “The law in its majestic equality forbids all men to sleep under benches ”” the rich as well as the poor.” … France’s sardonic jest expresses a bitter truth. Despite new laws, little has changed … The Negro is still the poorest American ”” walled in by color and poverty. The law pronounces him equal ”” abstractly ”” but his conditions of life are still far from equal."

MLK