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The softminded person always wants to freeze the moment and hold life in the gripping yoke of sameness.

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
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Pacifist
Pastor
Peace Activist
Politician
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Atlanta
Georgia
MLK
Martin Luther King
Dr. King
Michael King
Michael King Jr.
M.L. King
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Jr. King
Martin Luther King
Jr.
Wants
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Sameness
Always
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More quotes by 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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And one day we must ask the question, Why are there forty million poor people in America? And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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White Americans must be made to understand the basic motives underlying Negro demonstrations. Many pent-up resentments and latent frustrations are boiling inside the Negro, and he must release them. It is not a threat but a fact of history that if an oppressed people's pent-up emotions are not nonviolently released, they will be violently released.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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We must develop a federal program of public works, retraining, and jobs for all - so that none, white or black, will have cause to feel threatened . . . There is nothing except shortsightedness to prevent us from guaranteeing an annual minimum and livable income for every American family.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Our lives are not fully lived if we're not willing to die for those we love, for what we believe.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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If a person sweeps streets for a living, he should sweep them as Michelangelo painted, as Beethoven composed, as Shakespear wrote.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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The supreme task is to organize and unite people so that their anger becomes a transforming force.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Let us say boldly, that if the total slum violations of law by the white man over the years were calculated and compared with the lawbreaking of a few days of riots, the hardened criminal would be the white man.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Returning hate, adding deeper darkness to a night that is already void of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
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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Man is not made for the state the state is made for man. To deprive man of freedom is to relegate him to the status of a thing, rather than elevate him to the status of a person. Man must never be treated as a means to the end of the state, but always as an end within himself.
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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I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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[E]very human life is a reflection of divinity, and... every act of injustice mars and defaces the image of God in man.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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A social movement that only moves people is merely a revolt. A movement that changes both people and institutions is a revolution.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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And violence is impractical, because the old eye for an eye philosophy ends up leaving everybody blind .. It is immoral because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for everybody. Means and ends are inseparable. The means represent the ideal in the making in the long run of history destructive means cannot bring about constructive ends.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Education without direction is a one-sided social value. Direct action without education is a meaningless expression of pure energy.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Through violence, you may murder the hater, but you do not murder the hate.
Martin Luther King, Jr.