Top 103 Quotes & Sayings by Martin Luther King III

I began to understand that not only was there was a social justice agenda, there was a policy agenda. For every justice campaign there was a policy initiative associated with it.

Anyway, in 1966, Daddy had started to attack Lyndon Johnson on the war in Vietnam. Lyndon Johnson was a good man. Even though he was a Southern conservative, Lyndon Johnson passed more civil-rights legislation than any other president in history.

What I heard my mom always say was that, while she was never naive, she understood the FBI's intent was, obviously, to break up the family.

I think that it's appropriate to have the Confederate flag perhaps in a museum, but it is not a unifying symbol.

I was told that Daddy was murdered by a white man. I could have adopted an attitude of hating whites. But then in 1974 my grandmother was killed by a black man, so I could have hated blacks too.

Whether it is a tsunami, or whether it is a hurricane, whether it's an earthquake - when we see these great fatal and natural acts, men and women of every ethnic persuasion come together and they just want to help.

Because when we look at the modern civil rights movement under the leadership of my father and the team that he developed, it was at the federal level that we were able to appeal to bring about justice, whether it was in relationship to voting rights - just a number of issues.

My father's leadership was about more than civil rights. He was deeply concerned with human rights and world peace, and he said so on numerous occasions. He was a civil rights leader, true. But he was increasingly focused on human rights and a global concern and peace as an imperative.

The only way you change is you have to at least be communicating.

Many feel that in today's climate some of those in authority are exercising, in effect, a self-serving, 'ends justify the means' mindset as well, and that, in turn, empowers them to do the same.

I think dad would be very proud of young people standing up to promote truth, justice and equality.

I think the best of us comes when we are working together collectively. And it doesn't mean that we can't disagree. We've got to learn, as Dad taught us, to disagree without being disagreeable.

I just think we have to create the climate so that people will come out on election day and vote.

It's clear to me that millions of young people understand and value my father's legacy of social change through nonviolence.

Now, Martin Luther King Jr. was a bridge builder, not a wall builder.

Dad had a way of disarming people because he never really directly attacked them. He might attack a principle, but he never attacked the individual.

You can win a victory in your neighbourhood. You can win a victory in your school. You can win a victory in your place of worship... Be ashamed of your existence until you've done a little something to make the world in which we all must live a little better than it was when you arrived.

My father's approach to the most brutal and unambiguous social injustices during the civil rights struggle was rooted in nonviolence as a morally and tactically correct response.

My dad was focused on trying to get a guaranteed annual income for all people in 1968, shortly before he was killed. He did not get to realize that dream.

One of the things my dad and mom worked on throughout their lives was the eradication of poverty.

Now, that doesn't mean that individuals can't have Confederate flags on their property. They have the right to do that. But again, it represents something that is not unifying.

No one can tell any nation what it should want. The nation should determine what they want and how to make their nation become as best as it can become - all of us want our nations to be the best of what they can become, for our children.

Violence is the language of the unheard.

Our challenge is to mobilize a new coalition of conscience to restore the Voting Rights Act, strengthen voting rights and broaden voter access in the legislatures of the 50 states.

Martin Luther King Jr. was an impassioned advocate of economic justice as well as social justice.

Because no matter who we are or where we come from, we're all entitled to the basic human rights of clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, and healthy land to call home.

As our nation has become more divided, there is a resonance for a message to bring people together.

As human beings, we are God's highest creation.

I mean if you stay engaged, and are constantly fighting, you don't have time to regenerate. So sometimes you have to take time to renew your strength and energy, so that you can come back and fight again in a constructive way.

It's going to take all of us rolling up our sleeves to make America the America that it must become.

Our family has always drawn on the power from above to comfort us in times of despair and stress.

The King Center in Atlanta specializes in educating people about my father's life, work and teachings, and we have resources and programs available for that purpose.

That's why I don't generally talk about endorsements because I don't believe we have to tell people who to vote for.

There is more racial integration in American life and many more people of color serving as elected officials and corporate leaders than there were during my father's time. But there is also reason for concern about new forms of racial oppression, such as measures to make it harder to vote, racial profiling and crushing public worker unions.

President Obama certainly has an impressive gift for eloquence, and he has a global vision, as did my father. He doesn't rattle easy, and he doesn't harbor animosity, which were also characteristics my father had. But my father's arena was far broader than politics.

I believe we should appoint a cabinet-level position that will be solely and fully devoted to ending poverty as we know it in America.

There are times when you need a strategic quarterback who has a proven record, and certainly, Colin Kaepernick is one of those.

The reality is what Black Lives Matter are raising as an issue is an issue.

My siblings and I were watching the evening news and we saw it flashed across the screen that our father had been shot... we just knew that something terrible had happened.

I had the opportunity with my brother to travel with my father probably seven or eight times. The last experience was in 1967, just a few months before he was killed.

I think a culture of nonviolence will help create the condition where poverty is unacceptable, where racism is way behind us and not something that we have to deal with on a frequent basis, and where militarism and violence are reduced almost to be nonexistent.

No one in the planet can ever tell anyone else what they should do. For example, I do not go around the world trying to say somebody needs to be democratic.

My dad was not a tall man, but he always made me feel like he was a giant. I was never afraid when I was with him.

My mom and dad understood that every generation has to earn its freedom over and over again.

The Environmental Protection Agency's first-ever limits on carbon pollution from power plants will create clean- energy jobs, improve public health, bring greater reliability to our electric power grid, bolster our national security, demonstrate the United States' resolve to combat climate change and maybe even reduce our utility bills.

The best way to overcome joblessness is to create a social contract between the public and private sectors to provide decent jobs for the unemployed. The decaying infrastructure of our cities is in urgent need of repair and restoration.

I think we have got to do a better job explaining to people why their vote does count. I think people feel disconnected from some of their elected officials, as well as the system, because, sometimes, it is very complicated.

Human life is important and it feels like there is not a concern in communities of color. Very frustrated, but we will never give up and lose hope and change our system.

When you've been raised in a home of love, and for your loved one to be taken away from you through violence, a lot of emotions go through your mind.

I am humbled, gratified and overjoyed at the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial in commemoration of my father's leadership. It of course means a lot to our family. But more important, it is a great step forward for America.

If I woke up every day attempting to be my father, I would fail miserably. I think he was anointed. He was chosen by God, and there are few men or women in our world that will be chosen by God to make the kind of impact that he made.

I don't know that endorsement's important, so I'm not necessarily here to endorse, but what I will say is, if I was a Canadian resident, I would support my friend and his party, Justin Trudeau.

Because we always are feeling for justice for all that the reality is, unfortunately, the justice system is skewed, and often people of color do not receive appropriate justice in this country.

There are people of conscience all over the world, famous leaders, as well as unsung heroes and 'sheroes,' who are carrying forward the nonviolent movement for freedom and human rights.

It would be wonderful to have a president who talked about bringing America together and exhibited that, who was involved in doing a social project... that would show humility.

It's time for political leaders across the ideological spectrum to realize that, while partisanship is understandable, hyper-partisanship is destructive to our country. We need more visionary leaders who will earnestly strive for bipartisanship and finding policy solutions that can move America forward.

What we have still not learned is how to treat our fellow human beings... We have to find a way to coexist without doing harm to one another and that is whether it's in the United Stated or in the Middle East or in the African continent or in Asia or anywhere on the planet.

In my view, nothing would do more to reduce violence in American cities than genuine full employment - a job at a decent wage for every person who wants to work. Numerous studies have shown that violence increases with unemployment.

I'm totally against the death penalty - which, if anyone has a right to support, I do - because I do not see it as a deterrent to crime.

Martin Luther King Jr. would say love not hate would make America great.