Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.

I went to my son's graduation this weekend, and I heard a great quote I've never heard before from Albert Einstein. It was that the greatest danger to the world is not the bad people but it's the good people who don't speak out.

Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.

We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.

For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing.

How do you defend inaction in the face of crisis? How is that defensible for anybody?

Evil prevails when good people do nothing.

There are bad people and there are bad corporations. Just as there are good people and good corporations. That might seem too black and white, but what can I tell ya?

A time comes when silence is betrayal.

Evil will never be countered while good men do nothing.

The silence of the good people is more dangerous than the brutality of the bad people

There is nothing more tragic in all the world than to know right and not to do it.

The inability of those in power to still the voices of their own consciences is the great force leading to change.

We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.

Bad people doing bad things is not interesting. What I find interesting is good people doing bad things.

Greatness is not manifested by unlimited pragmatism, which places such a high premium on the end justifying any means and any methods.

I think the greater responsibility, in terms of morality, is where leadership begins.

Until the men of action clear out the talkers we who have social consciences are at the mercy of those who have none.

Evil prospers when good men do nothing.

Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.

My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt.

Let none of us delude himself by supposing that honesty is always the best policy. It is not.

You know that saying, bad things don't happen to good people? That's a lie.

I feel deeply my responsibility to teach sacred things. I am so aware that the world is changing and will be vastly different from the one I have known. Values have shifted. Basic decency and respect for good things are eroding.

To conceive the good, in fact, is not sufficient; it must be made to succeed among men. To accomplish this less pure paths must be followed.