114 Inspiring Instagram Captions & Quotes for Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Updated: October 19th, 2022

Jaw-dropping pictures aren't the only way to generate social media engagement.

Instagram captions, while frequently overlooked, are a powerful tool that may make or break your post.

Some businesses continue to put much too much emphasis on Instagram photos rather than captions.

Great Instagram captions have the power to offer even more insight to the post, potentially boosting engagement, bio visits, and click-throughs.

In this article, we've provided you with 114 Instagram caption ideas for your Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Additionally, we walk you through the 5 easy-to-follow tips on how to create a great Instagram caption.

Here they are:

Cute Martin Luther King Jr. Day Instagram Captions

  • Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.
  • Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
  • It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.
  • Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.
  • It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.
  • The surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.
  • We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.
  • Whatever your life’s work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.
  • The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.
  • We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose hope.
  • There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us.
  • I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
  • All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.
  • Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.
  • Ten thousand fools proclaim themselves into obscurity, while one wise man forgets himself into immortality.
  • Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.
  • Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
  • We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to mankind.
  • A lie cannot live.
  • Everything that is done in this world is done by hope.
  • Life’s most urgent and persistent question is what are you doing for others.
  • Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.
  • An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.
  • If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.
  • We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak.
  • No person has the right to rain on your dreams.
  • Seeing is not always believing.
  • You can kill the dreamer but you can’t kill the dream.
  • He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.
  • True peace is not merely the absence of tension, it is the presence of justice.

Short Martin Luther King Jr. Day Instagram Captions

  • Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles.
  • The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important.
  • I came to the conclusion that there is an existential moment in your life when you must decide to speak for yourself; nobody else can speak for you.
  • When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.
  • Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.
  • Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
  • Faith is taking the first step when you don’t see the whole staircase.
  • Keep the dream alive.
  • For the hour is late. The clock of destiny is ticking out, and we must act now before it is too late.
  • In the end, we will never remember the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.
  • A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.
  • Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.
  • That old law about ‘an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.
  • we’re all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.
  • A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.
  • Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
  • There can be no deep disappointment where there is no deep love.
  • I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.
  • The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace, and brotherhood.
  • Nonviolence is an absolute commitment to the way of love.
  • What is wrong in the world today is that the nations of the world are engaged in a bitter, colossal contest for supremacy.
  • We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
  • Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.
  • Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
  • If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.
  • The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically.
  • Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
  • I want to be the white man’s brother, not his brother-in-law.
  • We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive.
  • I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

Cool Martin Luther King Jr. Day Instagram Captions

  • Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
  • 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.
  • Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others?
  • Man must evolve for all human conflict a method that rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
  • We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
  • The quality not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important.
  • We must live together as brothers and perish together as fools.
  • We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the positive affirmation of peace.
  • I have a dream.
  • Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability but comes through continuous struggle.
  • There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November.
  • A riot is the language of the unheard.
  • There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right.
  • I am not interested in power for power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.
  • 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.
  • Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
  • Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great because greatness is determined by service, You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love.
  • Only in the darkness can you see the stars.
  • Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.
  • The time is always right to do the right things.
  • There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth.
  • We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.
  • The more there are riots, the more repressive action will take place, and the more we face the danger of a right-wing takeover and eventually a fascist society.
  • At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.
  • We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience.
  • We are not the makers of history, we are made by history.
  • Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.
  • Lightning makes no sound until it strikes.
  • The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one.
  • The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.

Inspirational Martin Luther King Jr. Day Instagram Captions

  • No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
  • Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.
  • All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
  • No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they’d die for.
  • You don’t need to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.
  • Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
  • Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.
  • Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.
  • Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.
  • Let freedom ring.
  • We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.
  • We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.
  • Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a constant attitude.
  • A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.
  • Character is how you treat others who can do nothing for you.
  • Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.
  • 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.
  • Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.
  • We cannot walk alone.
  • You will change your mind; You will change your looks; You will change your smile, laugh, and ways but no matter what you change, you will always be you.
  • We are not makers of history, We are made by history.
  • The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.
  • Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.
  • Courage is the power of the mind to overcome fear.

5 Tips For Creating A Great Instagram Caption

1. Write several drafts first

Make at least three different Instagram caption drafts.

This will allow you to edit, proofread, and compare your captions side by side to see which one has the most effect.

Your first draft will almost never be selected as the best option, which is why you should set aside enough time to write several.

2. Front-load the most important information

The 2,200-characters limit for Instagram captions is mostly a formality. However, it's worth noting that ig captions are cut off in users’ feeds to around 140 characters.

This doesn't mean you must make your insta captions extremely short so people can see everything without clicking "more."

Instead, frontload your captions with the most important sentence or calls-to-action, and save any @mentions, hashtags, or other unimportant information for the end.

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3. Include a strong call to action

The most effective way to maximize the possibility for your Instagram post to get shared and improve engagement is to include a call to action in the captions.

Instead of passively scrolling through, you should use action verbs to encourage people to take action.

Here are some exåmples:

  • Visit the link in bio to learn more
  • Share your experience in the comments
  • Enter by liking this photo and signing up for our monthly newsletter

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4. Limit yourself to 3-4 hashtags

A hashtag on Instagram works the same way it does on Twitter and Facebook: it unites the conversations of many users into a single stream.

Anyone who searches for that hashtag on Instagram may see your Insta post if your account is public.

However, you should use hashtags sparingly. As a means to get more followers, some Instagram users add a string of searchable hashtags.

Too many hashtags can come off spammy to your existing followers. Limit yourself to three or four hashtags at most.

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5. Use emojis and have fun with them.

Add some emojis to spice up your insta captions and make them more appealing.

Emojis added at the end of sentences or paragraphs may act as "bookends," visually breaking up long strings of text.

You can also use emojis to encourage readers to take action, such as clicking the link in the bio.

If you're going to use emojis, make sure they match your tone of voice and identity. You don't want to use too many emojis at once, particularly in the same caption.

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Final Thoughts

Good Instagram captions take your content to new heights.

Remember not to rush your copywriting and to evaluate the success of your efforts so that you can use objective benchmarks to figure out what works.

Your content will go far if you combine a beautiful photo with a great Instagram caption.

Do you want to check Instagram captions for other holidays in January?

meet the author
Pat Walls

I'm Pat Walls and I created Starter Story - a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. We interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started and grew their businesses.