Mlk jr pictures lifes most persistent question

Martin Luther King Jr.? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: A speech by the civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr. included a section about the importance of altruism versus selfishness; he posed the following question:

What are you doing for others?

Would you please help me to locate this quotation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The 1963 collection “Strength to Love” by Martin Luther King Jr.

included a sermon titled “Three Dimensions of a Complete Life” which contained the following passage. Boldface has been added to excerpts:¹

In a sense every day is judgment day, and we, through our deeds and words, our silence and speech, are constantly writing in the Book of Life.

Light has come into the world, and every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment.

Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, “What are you doing for