“In the no-nonsense school of adversity, which we did not choose for ourselves, we are learning how to operate a labor union.”

Years of misguided teaching have resulted in the destruction of the best in our society, in our cultures and in the environment.

If you’re not frightened that you might fail, you’ll never do the job. If you’re frightened, you’ll work like crazy.

What is at stake is human dignity. If a man is not accorded respect he cannot respect himself and if he does not respect himself, he cannot demand it.

The only ones who make things change are fanatics. If you’re not a fanatic around here, you can’t cut it.

We are suffering. We have suffered. And we are not afraid to suffer in order to win our cause.

We draw our strength from the very despair in which we have been forced to live. We shall endure.

Dr. King challenged us to work for a greater humanity. I only hope that we are worthy of his challenge.

From the depth of need and despair, people can work together, can organize themselves to solve their own problems and fill their own needs with dignity and strength.

When we are really honest with ourselves we must admit our lives are all that really belong to us. So it is how we use our lives that determines the kind of men we are.

Real education should consist of drawing the goodness and the best out of our own students. What better books can there be than the book of humanity?

I’ve always maintained that it isn’t the form that’s going to make the difference. It isn’t the rule or the procedure or the ideology, but it’s human beings that will make it.

If you give yourself totally to the nonviolence struggle for peace and justice you also find that people give you their hearts and you will never go hungry and never be alone.

It’s amazing how people can get so excited about a rocket to the moon and not give a damn about smog, oil leaks, the devastation of the environment with pesticides, hunger, disease.

There is no such thing as defeat in non-violence.

There’s no turning back. We will win. We are winning because ours is a revolution of mind and heart.

Non-violence has suffered its biggest defeat in the hands of people who most want to talk about it.