“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.”

— Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail (16 April 1963)

About Martin Luther King Jr.

1929 – 1968

American Baptist minister and civil rights activist whose leadership was instrumental in the American civil rights movement. His words on justice, love, and courage endure as moral touchstones.

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“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

“The time is always right to do what is right.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

“If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces.”

— William Shakespeare

“Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason.”

— Marcus Aurelius

“The young have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations.”

— Aristotle

“Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.”

— Aristotle

“I assert that the cosmic religious experience is the strongest and noblest driving force behind scientific research.”

— Albert Einstein

“There is no logical path to these laws; only intuition, resting on sympathetic understanding of experience, can reach them.”

— Albert Einstein

“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.”

About Martin Luther King Jr.

More from Martin Luther King Jr.

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