The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government.

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral; returning violence with violence only multiplies voilence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.

I submit that an individual who breaks the law that conscience tells him is unjust and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for law.

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal we seek, but that it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means.

We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.

To be silent is to acknowledge, to positively reinforce.

To be a Negro in America is to hope against hope.

We must use time creatively -- and forever realize that the time is always hope to do great things.

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.