Today we celebrate the legacy and birthday Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  He would have turned 91 years old last Wednesday on the 15th.

Dr. King was a courageous leader for racial justice and equality, both nationally and internationally. He is perhaps best known for the speech he gave on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington in 1963.

The “I Have A Dream” speech not only encapsulated the heart of the movement but defined the legacy of this great orator.  It is packed with compelling words and poignant metaphors that still reverberate throughout society.

In honor of this great American preacher and theologian who inspired us to dream, Ambo TV is sharing 10 powerful quotes from Dr. King that you may have never heard.

1. The God whom we worship is not a weak and incompetent God. He is able to beat back gigantic waves of opposition and to bring low prodigious mountains of evil. The ringing testimony of the Christian faith is that God is able.”
2. Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.
3. The self cannot be self without other selves…All life is interrelated.  All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.
4. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.
5. I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.
6. A lie cannot live.
7. Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.
8. Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.
9. Everybody can be great … because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.
10. Only through an inner spiritual transformation do we gain the strength to fight vigorously the evils of the world.

 

(Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)

This article was originally appeared on January 15, 2019