On this day when we remember the birth of Martin Luther King Jr, let’s also recall his words have application to our time as much as they did fiifty or more years ago. Today’s New York Times has a fine article on this subject. You can read it here.

Some quotes from that article include:

“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”

— from Dr. King’s speech in St. Louis on March 22, 1964.

“Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

— from Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963.

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

— from Dr. King’s speech at the Washington National Cathedral on March 31, 1968.

“Now, let me say as I move to my conclusion that we’ve got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point, in Memphis. We’ve got to see it through”

— from the last speech given by Dr. King, on April 3, 1968, in Memphis, the day before he was assassinated.