Some of King’s sharpest lines on character are older than his fame. As a student at Morehouse College in 1947 he wrote, in the campus newspaper, that “Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education” (King Papers). His later lines on courage and service come from sermons such as “The Drum Major Instinct” (1968).
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Courage & Leadership quotes
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“The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority.”
“If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry.”
What Is Your Life's Blueprint?, Barratt Junior High School, 1967
“Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right?”
King was about eighteen when the Maroon Tiger, Morehouse College’s student paper, printed his essay “The Purpose of Education.” The King Papers Project dates it to January–February 1947 (King Papers). His point was that reasoning ability isn’t enough on its own. A clever person with no moral compass can do great harm, and the essay names a Georgia politician as its example. Education, he wrote, has to produce character as well as intelligence.
Greatness redefined
Twenty-one years later, on 4 February 1968, he preached “The Drum Major Instinct” at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. The sermon takes the human wish to lead the parade and turns it toward service: you don’t need a college degree or perfect grammar to serve, only “a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.” In the same sermon he described what he’d like said at his own funeral. Excerpts were played at that funeral, at Ebenezer, on 9 April 1968 (King Institute).
Quoting these lines correctly
The education quote is often run together as one sentence. In the essay, “Intelligence plus character” comes several sentences after “to think intensively and to think critically,” so use an ellipsis if you quote both.
“Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve” says everybody twice. Versions with “anybody” are misquotes.
Frequently asked questions
What did MLK say about education?
In “The Purpose of Education,” published in the Morehouse student newspaper, the Maroon Tiger, in early 1947, he wrote: “The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically.” Later in the same essay: “Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education” (King Papers).
What did MLK say about leadership and greatness?
In “The Drum Major Instinct,” preached at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on 4 February 1968, he redefined greatness as service: “everybody can be great, because everybody can serve” (King Institute). Excerpts of that sermon were played at his funeral two months later.
How this page was made: written with AI assistance from the primary sources listed above.Every quotation and fact was checked against those sources by Maddy on 6 October 2026. How we verify · Last updated 6 October 2026
