Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!
To celebrate this day, I thought I’d share some Martin Luther King, Jr. quotes with you.
As I said in my recent Martin Luther King, Jr. Timeline post, King was a noble man whose story is worth sharing with children. Likewise, his quotes are good fruits for the minds of children and teens alike. The encompass a variety of topics from perseverance to forgiveness to doing what is right.
The quotes below could be used in a variety of ways in your homeschool. You may want to have an oral discussion about these gems. Some could be made into posters. Some could be used for copywork. Others could be used as a topic for an essay. Feel free to share these masterpieces with your family as you like. I offer them free of charge. 😉
I hope that your Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is blessed with love and kindness.
20 Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes
On Service
“Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve.”
On Faith
“Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.”
On Perseverance
“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
On Education
“Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.”
On Doing What’s Right
“the time is always right to do the right thing”
“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.”
On Happiness
“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.”
On Forgiveness
“Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.”
On Hope
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
On Doing Your Best
“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.”
“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way”
On Love
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
“I have decided to stick to love…Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
“Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. Just keep being friendly to that person. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.”
On Living Together in Peace
“We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
“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.”
On Racial Equality
“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.”
On Dreams
“No person has the right to rain on your dreams.”
On Suffering
“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.”
On Life
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?”
I hope you found these Martin Luther King, Jr. quotes helpful. Feel free to share his blessings with others by using the share buttons below.