I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate.

More from 'Letter from Birmingham Jail' in Why We Can't Wait 1963.

• Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.
• All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.
• A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on an installment plan.
• Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
• Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see. The Measure of a Man (1958)
• Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.