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

Injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates.

We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. Injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience at the air of national opinion before it can be cured.

Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong with capitalism. There must be a better distribution of wealth, and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism.

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

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

If you internalize anger, and you don't find a channel, it can destroy you.

I am now convinced that the simplest solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a new widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.

We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.