Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

Hate cannot overcome hate; only love can do that.

Hate doesn't end hate. Love ends hate.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Never by hatred is hatred appeased, but it is appeased by kindness. This is an eternal truth.

Hatred does not cease through hatred at any time. Hatred ceases through love. This is an unalterable law.

Hatred is never ended by hatred but by love.

War is not the answer, because only love can conquer hate.

It's much easier to be at peace than it is to hate somebody. It's much easier to love somebody than to fight with them.

We can no longer afford to worship the God of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. Love is the key to the solution of the problems of the world.

Hate does not produce love, and by hate one cannot remake the world.

Returning hate, adding deeper darkness to a night that is already void of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

The antidote to hatred in the heart, the source of violence, is tolerance.

Do you think you can cure the hatreds and the maladjustments of the world by hanging them? You simply show your ignorance and your hate when you say it. You may here and there cure hatred with love and understanding, but you can only add fuel to the flames by cruelty and hate.

We do not need guns and bombs to bring peace, we need love and compassion.

Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.

Teach my children to love! They'll learn to hate on their own.

May we not succumb to thoughts of violence and revenge today, but rather to thoughts of mercy and compassion. We are to love our enemies that they might be returned to their right minds.

I have spent over 50 years preaching and teaching the values of peace, mutual respect and altruism.

The way I stand up to bullies is with kindness and love. Because I think that's what they really need. They're misunderstood and probably really upset themselves.

A good end cannot sanctify evil means; nor must we ever do evil, that good may come of it... It is as great presumption to send our passions upon God's errands, as to palliate them with God's name... We are too ready to retailiate, rather than forgive, or gain by love and information. And yet we could hurt no man that we believe loves us. Let us try then what Love will do: for if men did once see we love them, we should soon find they would not harm us. Force may subdue, but Love gains: and he that forgives first, wins the laurel.

In this world Hate never yet dispelled hate. Only love dispels hate. This is the law, Ancient and inexhaustible.

Never, never is it possible to reach someone if you become angry or bitter only love and gentleness can do it. Maybe not this time but maybe the next or the hundredth time.

Love knows how to forgive. Love cannot hurt and cannot be violent.

The very first step in nonviolence is that we cultivate in our daily life, as between ourselves, truthfulness, humility, tolerance, loving kindness.

A third reason why we should love our enemies is that love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. We never get rid of an enemy by meeting hate with hate; we get rid of an enemy by getting rid of enmity. By its very nature, hate destroys and tears down; by its very nature, love creates and builds up. Love transforms with redemptive power.