Martin Luther King Jr. was a charismatic, inspiring leader who brought the nation to attention and sparked change for Civil Rights for African Americans in the United States.
As we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we remember the man who had a dream and what that dream means to us today. Here are 25 of some of his most famous words that continue to resonate true:
25. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
24. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
23. Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?
22. I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.
21 . Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.
20. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
19. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away, and that in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.
18. We may have all come on different ships but we're on the same boat now.
17. Lightning makes no sound until it strikes.
16. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
15. The curse of poverty has no justification in our age. It is socially as cruel and blind as the practice of cannibalism at the dawn of civilization... The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty.
14. 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.
13. There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.
12. We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
11. We can never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal."
10. The time is always right to do what is right.
9. Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
8. Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.
7. Only in the darkness can you see the stars.
6. 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.
5. A right delayed is a right denied.
4. 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.
3. Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
2. 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.
1. I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.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."
