Top 99 Quotes From "Letter From Birmingham Jail"

Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is a testament to his leadership and activism in the civil rights movement. Here are the top 99 quotes from the letter:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
“A just law is a man-made code that is consistent with the moral law.”
“One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty.”
“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate.”
“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.”
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
“Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.”
“We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”
“The time is always right to do what is right.”
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
“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.”
“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”
“There comes a time when silence is betrayal.”
“We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be co-workers with God.”
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
“The Negro is not the only victim. The white man is in as much danger as the Negro, for the hatred that consumes the Negro consumes the white man too.”
“I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need emulate neither the “do-nothingism” of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist.”
“We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.”
“If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail.”
“It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.”
“The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.”
“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
“I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.”
“We must use the weapon of love. We must have the compassion and understanding for those who hate us.”
“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”
“If a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.”
“We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience.”
“The nonviolent resister does not seek to humiliate or defeat the opponent but to win his friendship and understanding.”
“We must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers.”
“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.”
“I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham.”
“The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.”
“We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence.”
“We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience.”
“I am not afraid of the words of the violent, but of the silence of the honest.”
“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
“The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.”
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
“We must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers.”
“One day we will learn that the heart can never be totally right when the head is totally wrong.”
“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”
“We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
“We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”
“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.”
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
“The contemporary tendency in our society is to base our distribution on scarcity, which has vanished, and to compress our abundance into the overfed mouths of the middle and upper classes until they gag with superfluity. If democracy is to have breadth of meaning, it is necessary to adjust this inequity.”
“We must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.”
“The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be”
“We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience.”
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
“I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate.”
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
“We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be co-workers with God.”
“The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.”
“We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”
“We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
“The Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate.”
“We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence.”
“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
“The time is always right to do what is right.”
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where

"First I must confess I have been gravely disappointed with the white from www.pinterest.com