Most of King's best-known lines on courage come from two places written five years apart: a chapter called "Antidotes for Fear" in Strength to Love (1963), and his last speech, "I've Been to the Mountaintop," delivered in Memphis on April 3, 1968, the night before he was assassinated. The chapter is the more theoretical of the two, arguing that courage is a decision made in spite of fear, not the absence of it. The speech is the more haunting one — King spoke about death directly, said he wasn't afraid of it, and was killed the following evening. Read the two together and courage stops being an abstract virtue and starts looking like something he was being asked to practice in real time.
“Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles.”
This opens the chapter "Antidotes for Fear" in Strength to Love (1963), where King argues courage isn't the absence of fear but a decision made in spite of it.
“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.”
“A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.”
King said a version of this line during the 1968 Memphis sanitation workers' strike, the campaign that brought him to the city where he was assassinated weeks later.
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
“Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right?”
“The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human and, therefore, brothers.”
“Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now.”
From "I've Been to the Mountaintop," delivered at Mason Temple in Memphis on April 3, 1968. King was killed the following evening, which is part of why this speech is remembered as unusually direct about mortality.
“I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you.”
The closing line of the same Memphis speech, often read in hindsight as King anticipating his own death — though he had received bomb threats and knew the trip carried real risk regardless of that specific outcome.
Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Courage as a Choice, Not a Feeling
In Strength to Love, King draws a hard line between courage and cowardice, and it is not about how scared you are. Cowardice, in his telling, is giving in to circumstances. Courage is deciding to go forward anyway. That is a useful distinction, since it means courage was never about the fear going away first.
Related Quotes on Courage
Courage overlaps constantly with King's writing on justice and leadership, since he treated standing up under pressure as the test of both. The lines below aren't filed under "courage" in his own writing, but they make the same case from a different angle.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
“Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.”
“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.”
“Not everybody can be famous, but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service.”
“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”
“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.”
“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
“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.”
“Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.”
“We must combine the toughness of the serpent with the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart.”
“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.”
“No lie can live forever.”
“We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.”
“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.”
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
“Our God is marching on.”
“The time is always right to do what is right.”
“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
“The nonviolent resister does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his friendship and understanding.”
“Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”
Frequently Asked Questions
What did MLK say about courage?
"Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles." From Strength to Love, 1963.
What was MLK's last speech about?
"I've Been to the Mountaintop," delivered in Memphis on April 3, 1968, the night before he was assassinated. It's the source of several of his most quoted lines on courage and mortality, including "I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you."
Did MLK know he might be killed?
He had received bomb threats and referenced danger directly in his final Memphis speech, but there's no evidence he knew the specific threat that killed him the next day, April 4, 1968.
What did MLK say about staying silent?
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter" is widely attributed to King, though we haven't been able to confirm it against a specific published speech or sermon.
What did MLK say separates conscience from cowardice?
"Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right?" — from a 1968 speech.