King spent a fair amount of his writing arguing against a specific, comfortable belief: that change happens on its own, given enough time. He rejected that directly in the Letter from Birmingham Jail, and made the same case at greater length in his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize lecture, where he said human progress "is neither automatic nor inevitable." Both texts make the same underlying claim — that change is the result of specific people doing specific, often costly things, not the natural drift of history. Read that way, his repeated insistence that "1963 is not an end, but a beginning" wasn't a throwaway line at a rally. It was the same argument, restated for a crowd instead of a page.
“1963 is not an end, but a beginning.”
Said near the close of the speech, this line pushed back against treating the March on Washington itself as the achievement, rather than as one step toward a longer goal.
“We are not makers of history. We are made by history.”
“We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God.”
King wrote this directly against the argument that the civil rights movement should simply wait for change to arrive through the normal passage of time.
“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle.”
Delivered in Oslo in December 1964, this is King's most direct statement that change is made, not inherited — a restatement of an argument he'd already made in the Letter from Birmingham Jail the year before.
“The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority.”
“If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
“Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.”
Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Change Doesn't Arrive, It Gets Made
King wrote against a specific, comfortable idea: that injustice corrects itself if you wait long enough. He rejected that in the Letter from Birmingham Jail, and made the same case at greater length in his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize lecture, arguing that human progress "is neither automatic nor inevitable." Both texts treat change as the result of specific people doing specific, often costly things, not the natural drift of history.
Related Quotes on Change
Change overlaps constantly with King's writing on justice and freedom, since he treated all three as the same unfinished project. The lines below aren't filed under "change" in his own writing, but they build the same case.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
“Justice too long delayed is justice denied.”
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
“There is nothing greater in all the world than freedom. It is worth paying for. It is worth losing a job for.”
“Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.”
“We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.”
“The time is always right to do what is right.”
“History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”
“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.”
“The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human and, therefore, brothers.”
“Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles.”
“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.”
“Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.”
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
“Not everybody can be famous, but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service.”
“We are prone to judge success by the index of our salary or the size of our automobiles rather than by the quality of our service.”
“No lie can live forever.”
“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
“We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”
“The content of a man's character has nothing to do with the color of his skin.”
“Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last.”
Frequently Asked Questions
What did MLK say about change?
"Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle." From his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, December 1964.
Did MLK think change happens on its own over time?
No — he argued directly against that idea. In the Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963): "We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God."
What did MLK mean by "1963 is not an end, but a beginning"?
Said near the close of the I Have a Dream speech, it pushed back against treating the March on Washington itself as the achievement, rather than as one step toward a longer goal.
What did MLK say about people who go against the majority?
"The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority." From Strength to Love, 1963.
What is a good MLK quote about taking the first step toward change?
"If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward." From a 1960 commencement address at Spelman College.