Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

In a world built on violence, one must be a revolutionary before one can be a pacifist.

Civil disobedience has almost always been about expression. Generally, it's nonviolent, as defined by Henry David Thoreau, Gandhi, and King.

Civil disobedience is the only nonviolent escape from the soul-destroying heat of violence.

Protest is when I say I don't like this. Resistance is when I put an end to what I don't like. Protest is when I say I refuse to go along with this anymore. Resistance is when I make sure everybody else stops going along too.

I believe in civil disobedience among other forms of resistance in times when it's called for.

There comes an hour when protest no longer suffices; after philosophy there must be action; the strong hand finishes what the idea has sketched.

I have no weapon but nonviolence.

Civil disobedience is a viable political tactic, and a non-violent tactic.

In the very act of my non-co-operation, I am seeking their co-operation in my campaign.

So instead of acknowledging applause, I stand there unmoving while they take part in the boldest form of dissent they can manage. Silence. Which says we do not agree. We do not condone. All of this is wrong.

Civil disobedience can never be in general terms, such as for independence.

I think direct political action, civil disobedience, in particular, is something to be taken very seriously.

Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it.

Civil disobedience has an honourable history, and when the urgency and moral clarity cross a certain threshold, then I think that civil disobedience is quite understandable, and it has a role to play.

Protest is when I say this does not please me. Resistance is when I ensure what does not please me occurs no more.

Change comes when people are willing to commit acts of peaceful civil disobedience.

A little rebellion is a good thing.

Nonviolence is the rock on which the whole structure of non-co-operation is built.

Mass civil disobedience can use rage as a constructive and creative force.

There is a more excellent way, of love and nonviolent protest.

I think we brought to the world, the United States anyway, the whole idea of boycotting as a nonviolent tactic. I think we showed the world that nonviolence can work to make social change.

Today, whether it is a student who holds a sit-in to get the army recruiters off his campus, or the mother of a dead soldier who refuses to leave the front gate of the president's ranch, we continue to be saved by brave people who risk ridicule and rejection but end up turning huge tides of public opinion in the direction of righteousness. We owe them enormous debts of gratitude. It is not easy to stand up for what is right, especially when everyone else is afraid to leave the comfortable path of conformity.

Opposition is different from terrorism. Opposition is a political movement.

The use of violence is justified only under a tyranny which makes reforms without violence impossible, and should have only one aim, that is, to bring about a state of affairs which makes reforms without violence possible.

Nonviolent non-co-operation, I am convinced, is a sacred duty at times.