People gather to march in the annual parade down MLK Boulevard to honor Martin Luther King, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Jan. 16, 2017.Reuters
Forty-nine years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr., was shot and killed at a motel in Tennessee by fugitive James Earl Ray.
Ray may have ended King’s life, but the murder also guaranteed that the civil rights activist would be immortalized, admired and studied by Americans for generations to come.
King had a way with words. Here are 10 quotes — some well-known and some not — to commemorate the larger-than-life leader:
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."
Human beings with all their faults and strengths constitute the mechanism of a social movement. They must make mistakes and learn from them, make more mistakes and learn anew. They must taste defeat as well as success, and discover how to live with each. Time and action are the teachers.”
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”
“Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, ‘Love your enemies.’ It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals.”
“Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.”
“We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.”
“Violence brings only temporary victories; violence, by creating many more social problems than it solves, never brings permanent peace.”
“You know my friends, there comes a time when people get tired of being trampled by the iron feet of oppression. There comes a time my friends, when people get tired of being plunged across the abyss of humiliation, where they experience the bleakness of nagging despair. There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life's July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November. There comes a time.”
