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Keep feeling the need for being first. But I want you to be the first in love. I want you to be the first in moral excellence. I want you to be the first in generosity.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Martin Luther King, Jr.
Age: 39 †
Born: 1929
Born: January 15
Died: 1968
Died: April 4
Civil Rights Advocate
Human Rights Activist
Humanitarian
Leader
Minister
Pacifist
Pastor
Peace Activist
Politician
Preacher
Theologian
Atlanta
Georgia
MLK
Martin Luther King
Dr. King
Michael King
Michael King Jr.
M.L. King
Martin Luther
Jr. King
Martin Luther King
Jr.
Moral
Feelings
Keep
Firsts
Need
First
Generosity
Needs
Excellence
Love
Feeling

More quotes by Martin Luther King, Jr.

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It's not the violence of the few that scares me, it's the silence of the many
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Science deals mainly with facts religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals. They are complementary.
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The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human and, therefore, brothers.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Jesus reminds us that the good life combines the toughness of the serpent and the tenderness of the dove. To have serpent-like qualities devoid of dovelike qualities is to be passionless, mean, and selfish. To have dovelike without serpent-like qualities is to be sentimental, anemic and aimless. We must combine strongly marked antitheses.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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It does not matter how long you live, but how well you do it.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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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.
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If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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When we rise in the morning... at the table we drink coffee which is provided to us by a South American, or tea by a Chinese, or cocoa by a West African before we leave for our jobs we are already beholden to more than half the world.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Ten thousand fools proclaim themselves into obscurity, while one wise man forgets himself into immortality.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Unity has never meant uniformity.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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We aren't engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody. We are saying that we are determined to be men. We are determined to be people. We are saying that we are God's children. And that we don't have to live like we are forced to live.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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There's something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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How hard it is for people to live without someone to look down upon-really to look down upon. It is not just that they feel cheated out of someone to hate. It is that they are compelled to look more closely into themselves and what they don't like about themselves.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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I've decided to stick with love.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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We decided to set our direct-action program around the Easter season, realizing that, with exception of Christmas, this was the largest shopping period of the year. Knowing that a strong economic withdrawal program would be the by-product of direct action.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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In spite of the fact that the law of revenge solves no social problems, men continue to follow its disastrous leading. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Find a voice in a whisper.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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The early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the Church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles o popular opinion it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.
Martin Luther King, Jr.