It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.

About Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister who was a prominent leader of the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. He advanced civil rights in the United States through...

More quotations from Martin Luther King Jr.

The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.

—Martin Luther King Jr.

We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.

—Martin Luther King Jr.

At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.

—Martin Luther King Jr.

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

—Martin Luther King Jr.

Every time we drop our bombs in North Vietnam, President Johnson talks eloquently about peace. . . . But one day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal we seek, but that it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. . . . In the final analysis, means and ends must cohere because the end is preexistent in the means, and, ultimately, destructive means cannot bring about constructive ends.

—Martin Luther King Jr.