Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a national holiday that celebrates the life and legacy of a man who brought hope and healing to America through greater equality for all people, regardless of race.
Today, we celebrate the timeless virtues he taught by looking to his ground-breaking words that are just as relevant today as they were over 50 years ago.
As a man who stood by truth, justice, compassion, and courage, his character and leadership inspire our daily lives. On this holiday, read through 50 inspirational quotes that will encourage your child to seek greatness and promote standing up for equality.
50 Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes to Inspire Greatness
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, here are 50 inspirational quotes that will inspire your child for greatness and promote standing up for equality.
“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.’”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“I have decided to stick with love. . . . Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“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.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“If you can’t fly, run; if you can’t run, walk; if you can’t walk, crawl; but by all means keep moving.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“Everybody can be great because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“Mother Dear, one day I’m going to turn this world upside down.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“A right delayed is a right denied.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo 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.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“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.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there ‘is’ such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation — either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“No person has the right to rain on your dreams.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“The time is always right to do right.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“There comes a time when silence is betrayal.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“We must learn that passively to accept an unjust system is to cooperate with that system, and thereby to become a participant in its evil.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy to a friend.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they’d die for.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“There is no gain without struggle.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“It does not matter how long you live, but how well you do it.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“Hate destroys the hater.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“The difference between a dreamer and a visionary is that a dreamer has his eyes closed and a visionary has his eyes open.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
We hope you are left inspired by these famous quotes! If you need additional materials to help promote the holiday in your classroom or home, check out some of our additional materials for MLK day:
- Celebrating The Anniversary of MLK’s “I Have A Dream Speech In The Classroom”
- Waterford Civil Rights Day Coloring Page
- How To Promote Diversity In The Classroom
Sources:
“Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes (Author of The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.).” Goodreads. Goodreads. Accessed January 4, 2020. https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/23924.Martin_Luther_King_Jr_?page=1.
