Martin Luther King Jr. || In his own words

“Life at its best is a triangle. At one angle stands the individual person, at the other angle stands other persons, and at the tip-top stands God. Unless these three are concatenated, working harmoniously together in a single life, that life is incomplete.”

Sermon at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Ala., Jan. 24, 1954.

“How can one avoid being depressed when he discovers that of India’s 400 million people, more than 365 million make an annual income of less than $60 a year? As I looked at these conditions, I found myself saying that we in America cannot stand idly by and not be concerned. … And I remembered that we spend more than $1 million a day to store surplus food in this country. I said to myself, ‘I know where we can store that food free of charge — in the wrinkled stomachs of the millions of people who go to bed hungry at night.’”

June 6, 1961, speech outlining reflections on a trip to India.

“We are moving up a mighty highway toward the city of Freedom. There will be meandering points. There will be curves and difficult moments, and we will be tempted to retaliate with the same kind of force that the opposition will use. But I‘m going to say to you, ‘Wait a minute, Birmingham. Somebody’s got to have some sense in Birmingham.’”

Statement at 16th Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Ala., May 3, 1963.

“I was out in Watts during the [1965] riots. One young man said to me, ‘We won!’ I said, ‘What do you mean, we won? Thirty-some people dead — all but two are Negroes. You’ve destroyed your own.’ And he said, ‘We made them pay attention to us.’”

July 1967 speech.

“Don’t ever think that you’re by yourself. Go on to jail if necessary, but you never go alone. Take a stand for that which is right, and the world may misunderstand you and criticize you. But you never go alone, for somewhere I read that one with God is a majority.”

Sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Nov. 5, 1967.

Source: The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.