Martin Luther King Day: Top MLK quotes on Justice & Law

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is officially set for Monday, January 17 this year, and it is never too late to learn more about his work. Dr. King’s holiday celebrates the life and achievements of Martin Luther King Jr., an influential American civil rights leader. He is most well-known for his campaigns to end racial segregation and for racial equality in the United States.

Martin Luther King Jr. addresses the crowd during the March On Washington in 1963.

Among the most important of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s contributions to American history were his commentaries on the relationship between the law and social justice. Here are some of his best quotes on Justice & Law.

#1 Law & Order

“Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.”

MLK Tweet

If you’ve never read King’s Letter From A Birmingham Jail, take the opportunity to do so now. He begins by noting that everything Hitler did was “legal” by German standards of the time. His letter goes on to argue the need to focus on justice rather than law and order, even when it means breaking the law.

#2 On Injustice

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

MLK Tweet

These words from Martin Luther King, Jr. are a reminder that we all have a responsibility to take a stand when we witness injustice.

#3 Responsability

“One has not only a legal, but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”

MLK Tweet

Laws are made by humans, and humans unfortunately have a long history of discriminating against each other. King says that we have a moral responsibility to obey just laws, and a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. That’s how we expand freedom.

#4 A Just Law

"A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law."

MLK Tweet

To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas : An unjust law is a that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law.

#5 Human Personality

“Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.”

MLK Tweet

An unjust law is no law at all, in Latin Lex iniusta non est lex, is an expression of natural law, acknowledging that authority is not legitimate unless it is good and right. It has become a standard legal maxim around the world.

#6 Eye for Eye

“That old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do what is right.”

MLK Tweet

This quote refers to the Bible: He (Jesus) knew that the old eye-for-eye philosophy would leave everyone blind. He did not seek to overcome evil with evil. He overcame evil with good. Although crucified by hate, he responded with aggressive love.

#7 Eye for Eye

"An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law”

MLK Tweet

Two events that took place between the end of World War II and the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that exemplify Dr. King’s message are the attempted enrollment of Linda Brown in an Kansas school and Rosa Parks’s sitting in a racially segregated zone of a bus. In both cases, the actions violated laws that supported racial segregation, and in both cases, these individual actions became important stimuli for changing those laws.

#8 Only Love

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”

MLK Tweet

The quote tells us that hate cannot drive hate from your heart or the hearts of others. The only thing which can do that, according to the quote, is love. … In the end, hate will continue if left unopposed.

Most of the quotes cited here are from “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” an open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King Jr. Read the full letter here.

More Quotes?