Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

Think carefully before asking for justice. Mercy might be safer.

To me, I think justice is part of forgiving, if it is well done with love.

I don't believe in an eye for an eye. I believe in two eyes for an eye.

The essence of justice is mercy.

Nothing can make injustice just but mercy.

The severest justice may not always be the best policy.

The Criminal Code of every country partakes so much of necessary severity that without an easy access to exceptions it in favor of unfortunate guilt, justice would wear it a countenance too sanguinary and cruel.

Justice should not admit a public's thirst for pure revenge.

He who is only just is cruel. Who on earth could live were all judged justly?

I am a strong believer that without justice, there is no peace. No lasting peace, anyway.

In Scotland over many years we have cultivated through our justice system what I hope can be described as a 'culture of compassion.' On the other hand, there still exists in many parts of the U.S., if not nationally, an attitude towards the concept of justice which can only be described as a 'culture of vengeance.'

Instead of a man of peace and love, I have become a man of violence and revenge.

Justice that love gives is a surrender, justice that law gives is a punishment.

I do not even hate the Talib who shot me. Even if there was a gun in my hand and he stands in front of me, I would not shoot him.

The sturdiest pillars of human morality are compassion and a sense of justice.

To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them is cruelty.

Of course we need action, but it should be Just action.

I don't believe in vengeance. Really, when all is said and done, I probably don't believe in punishment.

One threatens the innocent who spares the guilty.

A king who desires his own welfare must always forgive litigants, infants, aged and sick men, who inveigh against him.

A great deal may be done by severity, more by love, but most by clear discernment and impartial justice.

Do ye suppose that mercy can rob justice? I say unto you, Nay; not one whit. If so, God would cease to be God

I even opposed the death penalty for the man who killed my brother .

The highest hallmark of a civilized society is not the rapidity by which it exacts vengeance, but its ability to hold victim and victimizer in its compassionate heart.

We can't continue with a justice of vengeance. Peace will require us to accept a certain degree of impunity; it's inevitable.