"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."
— Martin Luther King Jr.
The Ultimate Measure Of A Man
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.
About this quote
First delivered in August 1958 at the National Conference on Christian Education of the United Church of Christ at Purdue University and published in the 1959 booklet The Measure of a Man, before appearing again in Strength to Love (1963). Martin Luther King Jr.'s argument was that character reveals itself not in comfort but in crisis — a conviction shaped by his daily experience of threats, bombings, and arrests throughout the Civil Rights Movement. The line is inscribed on his memorial in Washington, D.C.
Source
Strength to Love, 1963
