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Born in Atlanta, Georgia, US, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was a valiant civil rights leader. He encouraged people to fight racism and injustice with respect and integrity with his soul-stirring speeches. Introducing some of the Martin Luther King quotes for kids can help you inspire and motivate your children to become just and knowledgeable citizens. Being a victim of racism himself, from a young age, Martin Luther King was dedicated to bringing equality and justice for people of color. He held peaceful protests against the unfair justice system with a vision to bring about social change and unity in diversity and motivated people through his empowering messages of nonviolent resistance and racial equality. Read on to let your child know about his greatness through a few of his quotes and inspire them.
75+ Martin Luther King Quotes For Kids
The great Martin Luther King was not only compassionate, but also honest, brave, and selfless. These quotes by King on love, freedom, justice, equality and fairness, brotherhood, patience, generosity, etc., would surely relate to your children and inspire them.
- “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy to a friend.”
- “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’”
- “We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”
- “Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.”
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- “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
- “There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth.”
- “The function of education
is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically.”
- “Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.”
- “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
- “When I hear, “People aren’t ready,” that’s like telling a person who is trying to swim, “Don’t jump in that water until you learn how to swim.” When actually you will never learn how to swim until you get in the water.”
- “We may have all come in different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”
- “It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.”
- “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
- “All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”
- “Believe in your dreams and they may come true. Believe in yourself and they will surely come true.”
- “Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.”
- “People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”
- “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
- “Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles; Cowardice is submissive surrender to circumstances.”
- “Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”
- “If you can’t fly, run; if you can’t run, walk; if you can’t walk, crawl; but by all means keep moving.”
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- “Every man lives in two realms: the internal and the external. The internal is that realm of spiritual ends expressed in art, literature, morals, and religion. The external is that complex of devices, techniques, mechanisms, and instrumentalities by means of which we live.”
- “We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.”
- “Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.”
- “The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important.”
- “There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November.”
- “Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.”
- “The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.”
- “A lie cannot live.”
- “Everybody can be great because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.”
- “Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.”
- “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
- “We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.”
- “But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.”
- “There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.”
- “A right delayed is a right denied.”
- “There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.”
- “Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in.”
- “Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.”
- “Nonviolence is absolute commitment to the way of love. Love is not emotional bash; it is not empty sentimentalism. It is the active outpouring of one’s whole being into the being of another.”
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- “Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness.”
- “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’”
- “It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.”
- “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
- “Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”
- “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 must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
- “There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right.”
- “No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they’d die for.”
- “Time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively.”
- “The tough-minded person always examines the facts before he reaches conclusions; in short, he postjudges.”
- “As my sufferings mounted, I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation — either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.”
- “No person has the right to rain on your dreams.”
- “Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.”
- “Whatever your life’s work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.”
- “We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the positive affirmation of peace.”
- “Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.”
- “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”
- “There comes a time when silence is betrayal.”
- “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
- “You can’t stop a bird from landing on your head. But you can keep it from building a nest.”
- “I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.”
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- “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.”
- “Life’s most urgent question is: What are you doing for others?”
- “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.”
- “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
- “Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a constant attitude.”
- “We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
- “If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.”
- “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy to a friend.”
- “We must learn that passively to accept an unjust system is to cooperate with that system, and thereby to become a participant in its evil.”
- “When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.”
- “Ten thousand fools proclaim themselves into obscurity, while one wise man forgets himself into immortality.”
- “That old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.”
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- “We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles, rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to humanity.”
- “I will not resort to violence, I will not degrade myself with hatred. I will return good for evil, I will love my enemies. Christ showed us the way and Gandhi in India showed it could work.”
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ShareFrequently Asked Questions
1. What guidance does Martin Luther offer for children facing difficult decisions?
Martin Luther King Jr. said that when children face difficult decisions, their parents should guide them through self-reflection. Children need to understand their environment and learn from their past experiences to gain the ability to handle current life problems.
2. How can Martin Luther’s words help children stay focused and motivated in their studies?
According to Martin Luther King Jr., the main aim of education is to teach a child to think intensively and critically. Education enables a child to become more efficient in achieving, with the increasing facility, the legitimate goals of their life.
3. How can kids honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy today?
Reading about Martin Luther King Jr. and his life might help children honor his legacy. They can lead their lives in accordance with his values and principles. Children can also volunteer to help those in their community and show courage to fight for their rights. More importantly, standing up to injustice and discrimination is the best tribute children can pay to the great man.
Martin Luther King or MLK quotes for kids can provide motivation and inspiration. Martin Luther King brought hope to the people of America, who were bound by inequality due to racism. He followed Christian beliefs and chose the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi to achieve his dream. His quotes on love, freedom, equality, perseverance, kindness, humility, compassion, and justice can teach positive values to children and raise their awareness of the civil rights movement. Thus, teaching children more about Martin Luther King may inspire them to speak up for what is right.
Infographic: Great Quotes By Martin Luther King Jr. To Inspire Young Minds
An activist and prominent leader in the Civil Right Movement, Martin Luther King Jr. was an inspirational man who lived a life of an example. Therefore, enlightening your child about his great sayings can motivate them to lead an inspiring life. The infographic below highlights some of his best quotes you can share with children.
Illustration: Momjunction Design Team
Learn about the inspiring life of Martin Luther King Jr. and his fight for civil rights for all people. Discover his powerful message of peace and justice.
