Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968


"Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also
internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you
refuse to hate him."

"Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we
arrive at that goal."

"Through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can't murder murder.
Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can't establish truth.
Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can't murder hate. Darkness
cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that..."

"A time comes when silence is betrayal. Even when pressed by the demands of
inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their
government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit
move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought
within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world.... "Some of us who have
already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling
to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with
all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must
speak. For we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems
so close around us.... "We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence
or violent co-annihilation. We must move past indecision to action. If we do
not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful
corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion,
might without morality, and strength without sight.
"Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves in the long and bitter,
but beautiful struggle for a new world...."

"We will not build a peaceful world by following a negative path. It is not
enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and
sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion
of war but the postive affirmation of peace. We must see that peace
represents a sweeter music, a cosmic melody, that is far superior to the
dischords of war. Somehow, we must transform the dynamics of the world power
struggle from the negative nuclear arms race, which no one can win, to a
positive contest to harness humanity's creative genius for the purpose of
making peace and prosperity a reality for all the nations of the world. In
short, we must shift the arms race into a peace race. If we have a will- and
determination- to mount such a peace offensive, we will unlock hitherto
tightly sealed doors of hope and transform our imminent cosmic elegy into a
psalm of creative fulfillment."

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the
starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and
brotherhood can never become reality. I believe that unarmed truth and
unconditional love will have the final word."