50 Best Martin Luther King Jr Quotes On Leadership Of All Time!

In respect of the great visionary who fought against systematic racism and championed the cause of Black Americans, today we share our picks for the best Martin Luther King Jr quotes on leadership. King, who was an American pastor, rose to prominence in 1955 during the bus boycott movement. He became the leader of the American civil rights movement and later one of the most important figures of our modern time. Today, he is the symbol of peace under whose leadership black Americans won their social and democratic rights. King was awarded a Nobel prize in 1964.

Martin Luther King Jr Quotes On Leadership

1. Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
2. If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.
3. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy.
4. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.
5. Ten thousand fools proclaim themselves into obscurity, while one wise man forgets himself into immortality.
6. Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.
7. The time is always right to do the right thing.
8. Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.
9. A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.
10. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
11. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.
12. Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?
13. We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.
14. Only in the darkness can you see the stars.
15. No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they’d die for.
16.  If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.
17. We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.
18. There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.
19. 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.
20. I have decided to stick to love…Hate is too great a burden to bear.
21. 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.
22. When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.
23. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
24. Ten thousand fools proclaim themselves into obscurity, while one wise man forgets himself into immortality.
25. All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.
26. Lightning makes no sound until it strikes.
27. Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability but comes through continuous struggle.
28. Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great because greatness is determined by service… You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love.
29. The soft-minded man always fears change. He feels security in the status quo, and he has an almost morbid fear of the new. For him, the greatest pain is the pain of a new idea.
30. You will change your mind; You will change your looks; You will change your smile, laugh, and ways but no matter what you change, you will always be you.
31. Almost always the creative, dedicated minority has made the world better.
32. 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.
33. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.
34. If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo 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.
35. 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.
36. We are not makers of history. We are made by history.
37. We must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope.
38. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
39. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
40. I will not be intimidated, I will not be harassed. I will not be silent, and I will be heard.
41. Freedom is never voluntarily granted by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
42. Leadership never ascends from the pew to the pulpit, but invariably descends from the pulpit to the pew.
43. All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.
44. The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.
45. Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a constant attitude.
46. The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.
47. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
48. Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
49. He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetuate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.
50. One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.

BONUS: 

• We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience
• Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction
• 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.
• World peace through nonviolent means is neither absurd nor unattainable.
• 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. 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.
• I am convinced that love is the most durable power in the world. It is not an expression of impractical idealism, but of practical realism. Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, love is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization.
• To return hate for hate does nothing but intensify the existence of evil in the universe. Someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate and evil, and this can only be done through love.
• The day we see the truth and cease to speak is the day we begin to die.
• Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
• Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.

Martin Luther King Jr practiced what he preached. He was a leader who led by example. King was greatly influenced by Gandhi. In fact, he even went to India to further learn his methods of achieving success through non-violent means. King said: “Christ furnished the spirit and motivation while Gandhi furnished the method”.

Non-violent activism did not mean to avoid hurting others peoples feelings but instead to challenge the status quo and fight darkness with light. As Gandhi believed: “An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind”.

King also knew violence would only beget more violence which as a result would only delegitimize the movement.

Therefore, King organized peaceful protests, campaigned for his message of love, endured torture. He had no fear and as a result eventually laid his life fighting his dream. Are you willing to?

So, which one is his quote on leadership inspires you the most? And did we miss some? If you know more Martin Luther King Jr’s quotes on leadership let us know by clicking here and we’ll add them.