On MLK Day let’s not just be grateful for a day off of work, let’s remember the core and values of a person that fought for things more important than a day that many of us don’t have to go into the “office.” Martin Luther King, Jr. isn’t just a name, he was an inspirational and fearless man and we should all take this day off and listen to his words, read his words, whichever is available to you, and let them resonate in all of us. So if my blog is the only place you have access to some of his words today, enjoy! Here are many of my favorites; the ones that really hit home for me. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream and wasn’t afraid to share it with the world. Do you have a dream? (And congratulations President Obama!)

“No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they’d die for.”

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

“Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.”

“Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.”

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

“Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars… Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

“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.”

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

“Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.”

“We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

“People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”

“On some positions, cowardice asks the question, is it expedient? And then expedience comes along and asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? Conscience asks the question, is it right?…There comes a time when one must take the position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must do it because conscience tells him it is right.”