The question of what you can do for others, and how you get there, was one that Martin Luther King Jr. acknowledged time and again through his short life. As we honored the legacy of King Monday, it’s fitting that we recall a few life lessons, in his own words — and words we can all live by:

“No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”

“Whatever your life’s work is, do it well.”

“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. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige and even his life for the welfare of others”

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?”

“If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, like Shakespeare wrote poetry, like Beethoven composed music; sweep streets so well that all the host of Heaven and earth will have to pause and say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper, who swept his job well.’”

“The time is always right to do what is right.”

“If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.”

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.”

“We must set out to do a good job, irrespective of race, and do it so well that nobody could do it better.”

“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.”

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

“We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society.”

“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.”

“Everybody can be great … because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

“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.”

And, one last quote so impactful that you will find it inscribed on the south wall of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C.:

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”