King was an ordained Baptist minister before he was a civil rights leader, and pastored Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery and later Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta for his entire adult life. His faith and his organizing were never separate tracks — the theology showed up directly in his political arguments, and the politics showed up in his sermons. "Our God is marching on," delivered after the Selma to Montgomery march reached the Alabama State Capitol in March 1965, is maybe the clearest example: a line that works simultaneously as theology and as a description of several thousand people who had just walked 54 miles. The quotes below draw from his sermons, his Nobel lecture, and a handful of speeches where the two registers overlap.
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.”
“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
“We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”
From the Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963), aimed at critics who argued King should wait for a more convenient moment to push for change.
“Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve.”
“Our God is marching on.”
King said this after the Selma to Montgomery march reached the Alabama State Capitol in March 1965 — a line that works simultaneously as theology and as a description of several thousand people who had just walked 54 miles.
“I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.”
From his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo, December 1964 — a line that ties material need directly to spiritual language, typical of how King didn't separate the two registers.
Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
A Preacher First
King was a Baptist minister before he was a public figure, and he kept preaching, at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and churches across the South, all the way through the years he's better known for. His faith and his organizing were not two separate tracks. Sermons like "The Drum Major Instinct" and speeches like the Nobel lecture use the same language and the same logic.
Related Quotes on Faith
Faith and hope sit close together throughout King's writing, and both lean on the same trust that change was possible even without proof it was coming. The lines below aren't filed under "faith" in his own writing, but they draw from the same well.
“Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”
“Love is the most durable power in the world.”
“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.”
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
“With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.”
“Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time.”
“At the center of nonviolence stands the principle of love.”
“Nonviolence is a weapon fabricated of love.”
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
“Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now.”
“I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you.”
“There is nothing greater in all the world than freedom. It is worth paying for. It is worth losing a job for.”
“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”
“Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.”
“Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
“The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human and, therefore, brothers.”
“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.”
“The time is always right to do what is right.”
“We are not makers of history. We are made by history.”
“Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.”
“1963 is not an end, but a beginning.”
Frequently Asked Questions
What did MLK say about faith?
"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase," widely attributed to King though not confirmed against a specific published source. A similar line, "Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step," also circulates and is likewise unconfirmed.
What churches did MLK pastor?
Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama (1954–1960), and Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, alongside his father, from 1960 until his death in 1968.
What did MLK say after the Selma march reached Montgomery?
"Our God is marching on," delivered at the Alabama State Capitol in March 1965 after the Selma to Montgomery march.
What did MLK say in his Nobel Peace Prize speech about faith?
"I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits." Delivered in Oslo, December 1964.
Was MLK's activism connected to his religious beliefs?
Yes, directly — he was an ordained Baptist minister his entire adult life, and his sermons and political speeches drew on the same theology, most visibly in his argument that nonviolent resistance was a Christian obligation, not just a political strategy.