“Words like ''freedom,'' ''justice,'' ''democracy'' are not common concepts; on the contrary, they are rare. People are not born knowing what these are. It takes enormous and, above all, individual effort to arrive at the respect for other people that these words imply.”
“Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture inflicted on a prisoner of conscience. It does not comfort those who have lost their loved ones in floods caused by senseless deforestation in a neighboring country. Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free.”
“A culture is only as great as its dreams and its dreams are dreamed by artists.”
“Human Rights must be made a fact, not an idealistic dream.”
“Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain.”
“We will speed the day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing... Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I'm free at last.”
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of their skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
"Where after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places,
close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any
maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the
neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory,
farm or office where he works...unless these rights have meaning there,
they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to
uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the
larger world."
“For fear is at the bottom of all intolerance. No matter what form or shape a persecution may take, it is caused by fear and its very vehemence is indicative of the degree of anguish experienced by those who erect the gallows, or throw fresh logs upon the funeral pyre. Once we recognize this fact, the solution of the difficulty immediately presents itself. Man, when not under the influence of fear, is strongly inclined to be righteous and just.”