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The 'tide in the affairs of men' does not remain at the flood it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: 'Too late...'

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.
Words
Affair
Passage
Residue
Doe
Bones
Pauses
Plea
May
Remain
Pathetic
Rushes
Every
Cry
Deaf
Civilizations
Men
Climate
Tides
Numerous
Time
Civilization
Passages
Tide
Jumbled
Late
Flood
Pause
Ebbs
Written
Affairs
Desperately
Bleached

More quotes by Martin Luther King, Jr.

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The time is always right to do what is right.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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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.
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Through nonviolent resistance the Negro will be able to rise to the noble height of opposing the unjust system while loving the perpetrators of the system.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Mother Dear, one day I'm going to turn this world upside down. --From My Brother Martin, by Christine King Farris
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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The job of the school is to teach so well that family background is no longer an issue.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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I have decided to love. If you are seeking the highest good, I think you can find it through love. And the beautiful thing is that we are moving against wrong when we do it, because John was right, God is love. He who hates does not know God, but he who has love has the key that unlocks the door to the meaning of ultimate reality.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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It is cheerful to God when you rejoice or laugh from the bottom of your heart.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor it must be demanded by the oppressed.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear. That old law about an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind... The time is always right to do the right thing. Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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To have serpentlike qualities devoid of dovelike qualities is to be passionless, mean, and selfish.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Had it not been for the ministry of my good friend Dr. Billy Graham, my work in the civil rights movement would not have been as successful as it has been.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Being a Negro in America means trying to smile when you want to cry. It means trying to hold on to physical life amid psychological death. It means the pain of watching your children grow up with clouds of inferiority in their mental skies. It means having their legs off, and then being condemned for being a cripple.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Unconditional love will have the final word in reality.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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When the Negro was completely an underdog, he needed white spokesmen. Liberals played their parts in this period exceedingly well.... But now that the Negro has rejected his role as an underdog, he has become more assertive in his search for identity and group solidarity he wants to speak for himself.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Without love, there is no reason to know anyone, for love will in the end connect us to our neighbors, our children and our hearts.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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This will be the day when we shall bring into full realization the dream of American democracy - a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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The negro cannot win the respect of the white people of the south or the peoples of the world if he is willing to sell the future of his children for his personal and immediate comfort and safety.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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In the final analysis the weakness of Black Power is its failure to see that the black man needs the white man and the white man needs the black man.
Martin Luther King, Jr.