Martin Luther King, Jr.

This national holiday honors Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  I thought a good way to honor his legacy would be to include some quotes from his speeches and his writing.  You can find quotations from Dr. King here.

•  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.
• Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true. 
• Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase.  
• Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
• Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars... Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
• We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
• I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live.  June 23, 1963
• The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.   1963
• Now, I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: - 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'      August 28, 1963
• ...And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. So I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man.   April 3, 1968 - the day before Dr. King was assassinated.

It seems that much progress has been made, but a cursory glance at recent headlines remind us we still are not there.