“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

“We must combine the toughness of the serpent and the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart.”

“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.”

“In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies...but the silence of our friends.

“no labor is really menial unless you’re not getting adequate wages.”

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree”

“Prima o poi arriva l'ora in cui bisogna prendere una posizione che non è né sicura, né conveniente, né popolare; ma bisogna prenderla, perché è giusta.”

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

“The question is not if we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.”

“It does not matter how long you live, but how well you do it.”

“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." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”

“You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.

“Three hundred years of humiliation, abuse and deprivation cannot be expected to find voice in a whisper.”

“God still has a way of wringing good out of evil. History has proven time and time again that unmerited suffering is redemptive.”

“One has not only a legal, but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”