Martin Luther King, Jr. - I Have a Dream (1963)

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We have waited for more than three hundred and forty years for our constitutional and God-given rights.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds.'

Martin Luther King, Jr.
In spite of its glowing talk about the welfare of the masses, Communism's methods and philosophy strip man of his dignity and worth, leaving him as little more than a depersonalized cog in the ever-turning wheel of the state.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
There is no easy way to create a world where men and women can live together... But if such a world is created in our lifetime, it will be done by rejecting the racism, materialism, and violence that has characterized Western civilization and especially by working toward a world of brotherhood, cooperation, and peace.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
There is no deficit in human resources; the deficit is in human will.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
History is the long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind's problems....

Martin Luther King, Jr.
I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular hometown.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Was not Abraham Lincoln an extremist? - "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free."

Martin Luther King, Jr.
From the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire, let freedom ring. From the mighty mountains of New York, let freedom ring. From the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania, let freedom ring. But not only that: Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Was not Paul an extremist for the gospel of Jesus Christ? - "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus."

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Truth is not to be found either in traditional capitalism or in Marxism. Each represents a partial truth. Historically, capitalism failed to discern the truth in collective enterprise and Marxism failed to see the truth in individual enterprise.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the postive affirmation of peace.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
The contemporary church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
As the weeks and months unfolded, we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
If I lived in a Communist country today where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I believe I would openly advocate disobeying these anti-religious laws.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's often vocal sanction of things as they are.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
The end of violence or the aftermath of violence is bitterness. The aftermath of nonviolence is reconciliation and the creation of a beloved community. A boycott is never an end within itself. It is merely a means to awaken a sense of shame within the oppressor but the end is reconciliation, the end is redemption.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched across the pages of history the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence, we were here.

Martin Luther King, Jr.