January 13, 2017 — In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 16, here are 31 of his inspirational quotes to help us remember the
power of a vision and give us the courage to
act upon our own dreams.
1. “Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.”
2. “There comes a time when silence is betrayal.”
3. “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
4. “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our
friends.”
5. “Only in the darkness can you see the stars.”
6. “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.”
7. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: Only love can do
that.”
(CNS/Joe Heller)
8. “Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”
9. “That old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right
to do the right thing.”
10. “There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor
politic nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him
it is right.”
11. “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious
stupidity.”
12. “Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and
misguided men.”
13. “Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.”
14. “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.”
15. “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.”
16. “I have decided to stick to love … Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
17. “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.”
18. “A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.”
19. “No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they’d die
for.”
20. “Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a constant attitude.” 
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.,joins hands with with the Rev. Edgar Chandler, Father Theodore Hesburgh and Msgr. Robert J. Hagarty in 1964 at the Illinois Rally for Civil Rights in Chicago’s Soldier Field. (CNS photo/courtesy University of Notre Dame)
21. “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.”
22. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
23. “We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.”
24. “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.”
25. “We must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope.”
26. “I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with
little white boys and girls.”
27. “We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
28. “Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power;
religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts;
religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.”
29. “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.”
30. “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.”
31. “No person has the right to rain on your dreams.” [Source: Inc.]
