“The greatest purveyor of violence in the world : My own Government, I can not be Silent.”

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.

A lie cannot live.

We must use time creatively – and forever realize that the time is always hope to do great things.

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.

Quietly endure, silently suffer and patiently wait.

I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.

True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

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.

Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.

Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service.

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.

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.

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.

The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.

I belong to no organized party. I am a Democrat.

Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15.

Poverty in a democracy is as much to be preferred to what is called prosperity under despots, as freedom is to slavery.

I am the Doctor of Democracy.

With all its faults, the American political system is the freest and most democratic in the world.

Democrats have power, we have to be bold in a way we have not seen since FDR in the 1930s.

Our government needs the church, because only those humble enough to admit they’re sinners can bring democracy the tolerance it requires to survive.

Voting is the most powerful nonviolent tool or instrument that we have in a democratic society. And we must use it.