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I Still Believe That Standing Up For The Truth Of God Is The Greatest Thing In The World. This Is The End (purpose) Of Life. The End Of Life Is Not To Be Happy. The End Of Life Is Not To Achieve Pleasure And Avoid Pain. The End Of Life Is To Do The Will Of God, Come What May.

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

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I Still Believe That

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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I Still Believe That Standing Up For The Truth Of God Is The Greatest Thing In The World. This Is The End (purpose) Of Life. The End Of Life Is Not To Be Happy. The End Of Life Is Not To Achieve Pleasure And Avoid Pain. The End Of Life Is To Do The Will Of God, Come What May.

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For You Will Never Be What You Ought To Be Until They [your Fellow Humans] Are What They Ought To Be.

Friends Are Forever Boys Are Whatever.

Being A Negro In America Means Trying To Smile When You Want To Cry. It Means Trying To Hold On To Physical Life Amid Psychological Death. It Means The Pain Of Watching Your Children Grow Up With Clouds Of Inferiority In Their Mental Skies. It Means Having Their Legs Off, And Then Being Condemned For Being A Cripple.

A Law Is Unjust If It Is Inflicted On A Minority That, As A Result Of Being Denied The Right To Vote, Had No Part In Enacting Or Devising The Law. Who Can Say That The Legislature Of Alabama Which Set Up The State's Segregation Laws Was Democratically Elected?

Every Nation Must Now Develop An Overriding Loyalty To Mankind As A Whole In Order To Preserve The Best In Their Individual Societies.

To Have Serpentlike Qualities Devoid Of Dovelike Qualities Is To Be Passionless, Mean, And Selfish.

Hate Is Too Heavy A Burden To Bear.

In The Struggle For Human Rights And Justice, Negros Will Make A Mistake If They Become Bitter And Indulge In Hate Campaigns.

I Refuse To Accept The View That Mankind Is So Tragically Bound To The Starless Midnight Of Racism And War That The Bright Daybreak Of Peace And Brotherhood Can Never Become A Reality... I Believe That Unarmed Truth And Unconditional Love Will Have The Final Word.

There Is A More Excellent Way, Of Love And Nonviolent Protest.

We Must Develop And Maintain The Capacity To Forgive. He Who Is Devoid Of The Power To Forgive Is Devoid Of The Power To Love.

When You Are Right You Cannot Be Too Radical; When You Are Wrong, You Cannot Be Too Conservative.

Thought Provoking

Power Without Love Is Reckless And Abusive, And Love Without Power Is Sentimental And Anemic. Power At Its Best Is Love Implementing The Demands Of Justice, And Justice At Its Best Is Power Correcting Everything That Stands Against Love.

My Soul Is Too Glad And Too Great To Be At Heart The Enemy Of Any Man

Millions Of Citizens Are Deeply Disturbed That The Military-industrial Complex Too Often Shapes National Policy, But They Do Not Want To Be Considered Unpatriotic.

A Second Basic Fact That Characterizes Nonviolence Is That It Does Not Seek To Defeat Or Humiliate The Opponent, But To Win His Friendship And Understanding.

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There Comes A Time When The Cup Of Endurance Runs Over, And Men Are No Longer Willing To Be Plunged Into The Abyss Of Despair.

A True Revolution Of Values Will Soon Cause Us To Question The Fairness And Justice Of Many Of Our Present Policies.

Breaking Silence

When A Nation Becomes Obsessed With The Guns Of War, It Loses Its Social Perspective.... There Is Something About A War Like This That Makes People Insensitive. It Dulls The Conscience. It Strengthens The Forces Of Reaction, And It Brings Into Being Bitterness And Hatred And Violence.

In Struggling For Human Dignity The Oppressed People Of The World Must Not Allow Themselves To Become Bitter Or Indulge In Hate Campaigns. To Retaliate With Hate And Bitterness Would Do Nothing But Intensify The Hate In The World. Along The Way Of Life, Someone Must Have Sense Enough And Morality Enough To Cut Off The Chain Of Hate. This Can Be Done Only By Projecting The Ethics Of Love To The Center Of Our Lives.

I Think That We Must Face The Fact That In Reality, You Cannot Have Economic And Political Equality Without Having Some Form Of Social Equality. I Think This Is Inevitable.

We Have No Honorable Intentions In Vietnam. Our Minimal Expectation Is To Occupy It As An American Colony And Maintain Social Stability For Our Investments. This Tells Why American Helicopters Are Being Used Against Guerrillas In Colombia And Peru. Increasingly The Role Our Nation Has Taken Is The Role Of Those Who Refuse To Give Up The Privileges And Pleasures That Come From The Immense Profits Of Overseas Investment.

If You Want To Move People, It Has To Be Toward A Vision That's Positive For Them, That Taps Important Values, That Gets Them Something They Desire And It Has To Be Presented In A Compelling Way So That They Feel Inspired To Follow.

Important Values

Just As Socrates Felt That It Was Necessary To Create A Tension In The Mind So That Individuals Could Rise From The Bondage Of Myths And Half-truths To The Unfettered Realm Of Creative Analysis And Objective Appraisal, So Must We See The Need For Nonviolent Gadflies To Create The Kind Of Tension In Society That Will Help Men Rise From The Dark Depths Of Prejudice And Racism To Majestic Heights Of Understanding And Brotherhood.

I Had A Very Depressing Response Because I Realized That These Were My Own People, These Were Negroes Throwing Eggs At Me. I'm Concerned About The Fact That Maybe All Of Us Have Contributed To This By Not Working Harder To Get Rid Of The Conditions, The Poverty, The Social Isolation, And All Of The Conditions That Cause Individuals To Respond Like This.

I Think One Can Live In American Society With A Certain Cultural Heritage, Whether It's An African Heritage Or Other, European,what Have You, And Still Absorb A Great Deal Of This Culture. There Is Always Cultural Assimilation.

The Darwinian Concept Of The Survival Of The Fittest Has Been Substituted By A Philosophy Of The Survival Of The Slickest.

My Place Is In The Sunlight Of Opportunity.

This Faith Transforms The Whirlwind Of Despair Into A Warm And Reviving Breeze Of Hope. The Words Of A Motto Which A Generation Ago Were Commonly Found On The Wall In The Homes Of Devout Persons Need To Be Etched On Our Hearts: Fear Knocked At The Door. Faith Answered. There Was No One There.

We Have Guided Missiles And Misguided Men.

Returning Violence For Violence Multiplies Violence, Adding Deeper Darkness To A Night Already Devoid Of Stars.

Now Is The Time To Lift Our National Policy From The Quicksand Of Racial Injustice To The Solid Rock Of Human Dignity.

I've Told The Kids In The Ghettos That Violence Won't Solve Their Problems, But Then They Ask Me, And Rightly So; "why Does The Government Use Massive Doses Of Violence To Bring About The Change It Wants In The World?" After This I Knew That I Could No Longer Speak Against The Violence In The Ghettos Without Also Speaking Against The Violence Of My Government.

I Refuse To Accept The Idea That Man Is Mere Flotsam And Jetsam In The River Of Life, Unable To Influence The Unfolding Events Which Surround Him.

I Am Not Unmindful That Some Of You Have Come Here Out Of Great Trials And Tribulations. Some Of You Have Come Fresh From Narrow Cells. Some Of You Have Come From Areas Where Your Quest For Freedom Left You Battered By The Storms Of Persecution And Staggered By The Winds Of Police Brutality. You Have Been The Veterans Of Creative Suffering. Continue To Work With The Faith That Unearned Suffering Is Redemptive.

Let Us Develop A Kind Of Dangerous Unselfishness.

Nothing Pains Some People More Than Having To Think

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Even If Our Motives Are Presently Misunderstood. We Will Reach The Goal Of Freedom In Birmingham And All Over The Nation, Because The Goal Of America Is Freedom.

We Aren't Going To Let Any Mace Stop Us. We Are Masters In Our Nonviolent Movement In Disarming Police Forces; They Don't Know What To Do.

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.

Almost Always, The Creative Dedicated Minority Has Made The World Better.

People With Good Intentions But Limited Understanding Are More Dangerous Than People With Total Ill Will.

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It All Boils Down To This: That All Life Is Interrelated.

If You Lose Hope, Somehow You Lose The Vitality That Keeps Moving, You Lose That Courage To Be, That Quality That Helps You Go On In Spite Of It All. And So Today I Still Have A Dream.

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Beloved Community

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A Woman Can Have A Smile, And A Woman Can Have A Large Backside, But I Have Been To The Mountain And I Am Here To Tell You That When A Woman Has Both Of Those Things She Is Not To Be Trusted.

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.

Many People Fear Nothing More Terribly Than To Take A Position Which Stands Out Sharply And Clearly From The Prevailing Opinion. The Tendency Of Most Is To Adopt A View That Is So Ambiguous That It Will Include Everything And So Popular That It Will Include Everybody. Not A Few Men Who Cherish Lofty And Noble Ideals Hide Them Under A Bushel For Fear Of Being Called Different.

Without God, All Of Our Efforts Turn To Ashes And Our Sunrise Into The Darkest Of Nights.

I Still Believe That One Day Mankind Will Bow Before The Altars Of God And Be Crowned Triumphant Over War And Bloodshed, And Nonviolent Redemptive Goodwill Will Proclaim The Rule Of The Land.

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.

Love Is Creative And Redemptive. Love Builds Up And Unites; Hate Tears Down And Destroys. The Aftermath Of The ‘fight With Fire’ Method...is Bitterness And Chaos, The Aftermath Of The Love Method Is Reconciliation And Creation Of The Beloved Community...yes , Love-which Means Understanding, Creative, Redemptive Goodwill, Even For One’s Enemies-is The Solution

Voting Is The Foundation Stone For Political Action.

Somewhere Somebody Must Have Some Sense. Men Must See That Force Begets Force, Hate Begets Hate, Toughness Begets Toughness. And It Is All A Descending Spiral, Ultimately Ending In Destruction For All And Everybody. Somebody Must Have Sense Enough And Morality Enough To Cut Off The Chain Of Hate And The Chain Of Evil In The Universe. And You Do That By Love.

When Negroes Looked For The Second Phase, The Realization Of Equality, They Found That Many Of Their White Allies Had Quietly Disappeared.... To Stay Murder Is Not The Same Thing As To Ordain Brotherhood.

Perhaps The Worst Sin In Life Is Knowing Right And Not Doing It.

We Must Learn That Passively To Accept An Unjust System Is To Cooperate With That System, And Thereby To Become A Participant In Its Evil.

Cowardice Asks The Question, Is It Safe?

There Is A Type Of Constructive Nonviolent Tension That Is Necessary For Growth

The Difference Between A Dreamer And A Visionary Is That A Dreamer Has His Eyes Closed And A Visionary Has His Eyes Open

The Negro's Problem Will Not Be Solved By Running Away.

World Hinges On Moral Foundations. God Has Made It So! God Has Made The Universe To Be Based On A Moral Law. So Long As Man Disobeys It He Is Revolting Against God. That’s What We Need In The World Today - People Who Will Stand For Right And Goodness.

Returning Hate For Hate Multiplies Hate, Adding Deeper Darkness To A Night Already Devoid Of Stars. Darkness Cannot Drive Out Darkness; Only Light Can Do That. Hate Cannot Drive Out Hate; Only Love Can Do That.

Today, Our Very Survival Depends On Our Ability To Stay Awake, To Adjust To New Ideas, To Remain Vigilant And To Face The Challenge Of Change.

I Won't Have Any Money To Leave Behind. I Won't Have The Fine And Luxurious Things Of Life To Leave Behind. But I Just Want To Leave A Committed Life Behind.

A Second Thing That An Individual Must Do In Seeking To Love His Enemy Is To Discover The Element Of Good In His Enemy, And Everytime You Begin To Hate That Person And Think Of Hating That Person, Realize That There Is Some Good There And Look At Those Good Points Which Will Over-balance The Bad Points.

Join With The Earth And Each Other, To Bring New Life To The Land, To Restore The Waters, To Refresh The Air, To Renew The Forests, To Care For The Plants, To Protect The Creatures, To Celebrate The Seas, To Rejoice In The Sunlight, To Sing The Song Of The Stars, To Recall Our Destiny, To Renew Our Spirits, To Reinvigorate Our Bodies, To Recreate The Human Community, To Promote Justice And Peace, To Love Our Children And Love One Another, To Join Together As Many And Diverse Expressions Of One Loving Mystery, For The Healing Of The Earth And The Renewal Of All Life.

It All Boils Down To The Fact That We Must Never Allow Ourselves To Become Satisfied With Unattained Goals. We Must Always Maintain A Kind Of Divine Discontent.

The Greatness Of Our God Lies In The Fact That [he] Is Both Tough Minded And Tender Hearted.

In The Event Of A Violent Revolution, We Would Be Sorely Outnumbered. And When It Was All Over, The Negro Would Face The Same Unchanged Conditions, The Same Squalor And Deprivation-the Only Difference Being That His Bitterness Would Be Even More Intense, His Disenchantment Even More Abject. Thus, In Purely Practical As Well As Moral Terms, The American Negro Has No Rational Alternative To Nonviolence.

It's Just As Evil To Kill Vietnamese As It Is To Kill Americans.

Israel... Is One Of The Great Outpost Of Democracy In The World

Alienation Is A Form Of Living Death. It Is The Acid Of Despair That Dissolves Society.

The Hope Of The World Is Still In Dedicated Minorities. The Trail-blazers In Human, Scientific And Religious Freedom Have Always Been In A Minority.

Something Should Remind Us Once More That The Great Things In This Universe Are Things That We Never See.

I Cannot Make Myself Believe That God Wanted Me To Hate. I'm Tired Of Violence, I've Seen Too Much Of It. I've Seen Such Hate On The Faces Of Too Many Sheriffs In The South. And I'm Not Going To Let My Oppressor Dictate To Me What Method I Must Use. Our Oppressors Have Used Violence. Our Oppressors Have Used Hatred. Our Oppressors Have Used Rifles And Guns. I'm Not Going To Stoop Down To Their Level. I Want To Rise To A Higher Level. We Have A Power That Can't Be Found In Molotov Cocktails.

Every Man [human Being] Is An Heir To A Legacy Of Dignity And Worth

The Hope Of A Secure And Livable World Lies With Disciplined Nonconformists, Who Are Dedicated To Justice, Peace And Brotherhood. The Trailblazers In Human, Academic, Scientific And Religious Freedom Have Always Been Nonconformists. In Any Cause That Concerns The Progress Of Mankind, Put Your Faith In The Nonconformist!

If I Lived In China Or Even Russia, Or Any Totalitarian Country, Maybe I Could Understand Some Of These Illegal Injunctions. ... But Somewhere I Read Of The Freedom Of Assembly. Somewhere I Read Of The Freedom Of Speech. Somewhere I Read Of The Freedom Of The Press. Somewhere I Read That The Greatness Of America Is The Right To Protest For Right.

Power Properly Understood Is Nothing But The Ability To Achieve Purpose... One Of The Great Problems Of History Is That The Concepts Of Love And Power Have Usually Been Contrasted As Opposites --- Polar Opposites --- So That Love Is Identified With A Resignation Of Power, And Power With A Denial Of Love... What Is Needed Is A Realization That Power Without Love Is Reckless And Abusive, And Love Without Power Is Sentimental And Anemic. Power At Its Best Is Love Implementing The Demands Of Justice, And Justice At Its Best Is Power Correcting Everything That Stands Against Love.

We Must Shift The Arms Race Into A 'peace Race'.

When We Look At Modern Man, We Have To Face The Fact...that Modern Man Suffers From A Kind Of Poverty Of The Spirit, Which Stands In Glaring Contrast To His Scientific And Technological Abundance; We've Learned To Fly The Air Like Birds, We've Learned To Swim The Seas Like Fish, And Yet We Haven't Learned To Walk The Earth As Brothers And Sisters.

The Only Time People Do Not Like Praise Is When Too Much Of It Is Going Toward Someone Else.

In Our Glorious Fight For Civil Rights, We Must Guard Against Being Fooled By False Slogans, Such As 'right-to-work.' It Provides No 'rights' And No 'works.' Its Purpose Is To Destroy Labor Unions And The Freedom Of Collective Bargaining…. We Demand This Fraud Be Stopped.

We Are Out To Defeat Injustice And Not White Persons Who May Be Unjust.

I Would Be Misleading You If I Made You Feel That We Could Win A Violent Campaign. It's Impractical Even To Think About It. The Minute We Start, We Will End Up Getting Many More People Killed Unnecessarily. Now, I'm Ready To Die Myself. Many Other Committed People Are Ready To Die. If You Believe In Something Firmly, If You Believe In It Truly, If You Believe It In Your Heart, You Are Willing To Die For It, But I'm Not Going To Advocate A Method That Brings About Unnecessary Death.

We Live In A World Of Guided Missiles And Misguided Men.

I Hate It When People Quote Me On The Internet, Claiming I Said Things That I Never Actually Said.

Education Without Morals Is Like A Ship Without A Compass, Merely Wandering Nowhere.

Violence Never Really Deals With The Basic Evil Of The Situation. Violence May Murder The Murderer, But It Doesn’t Murder Murder. Violence May Murder The Liar, But It Doesn’t Murder Lie; It Doesn’t Establish Truth. Violence May Even Murder The Dishonest Man, But It Doesn’t Murder Dishonesty. Violence May Go To The Point Of Murdering The Hater, But It Doesn’t Murder Hate. It May Increase Hate. It Is Always A Descending Spiral Leading Nowhere. This Is The Ultimate Weakness Of Violence: It Multiplies Evil And Violence In The Universe. It Doesn’t Solve Any Problems.

As Long As There Is Poverty In The World I Can Never Be Rich, Even If I Have A Billion Dollars. As Long As Diseases Are Rampant And Millions Of People In This World Cannot Expect To Live More Than Twenty-eight Or Thirty Years, I Can Never Be Totally Healthy Even If I Just Got A Good Checkup At Mayo Clinic. I Can Never Be What I Ought To Be Until You Are What You Ought To Be. This Is The Way Our World Is Made. No Individual Or Nation Can Stand Out Boasting Of Being Independent. We Are Interdependent.

I Often Feel Like Saying, When I Hear The Question 'people Aren't Ready,' That It's Like Telling A Person Who Is Trying To Swim, 'don't Jump In That Water Until You Learn How To Swim.' When Actually You Will Never Learn How To Swim Until You Get In The Water. And I Think People Have To Have An Opportunity To Develop Themselves And Govern Themselves.

My Friends, I Must Say To You That We Have Not Made A Single Gain In Civil Rights Without Determined Legal And Nonviolent Pressure.

There Is Nothing More Tragic Than To Find An Individual Bogged Down In The Length Of Life, Devoid Of Breadth.

Please Be Peaceful. We Believe In Law And Order. We Are Not Advocating Violence, I Want You To Love Your Enemies... For What We Are Doing Is Right, What We Are Doing Is Just -- And God Is With Us.

Christianity Affirms That At The Heart Of Reality Is A Heart, A Loving Father Who Works Through History For The Salvation Of His Children. Man Cannot Save Himself, For Man Is Not The Measure Of All Things And Humanity Is Not God. Bound By The Chains Of His Own Sin And Finiteness, Man Needs A Savior.

If An American Is Concerned Only About His Nation, He Will Not Be Concerned About The Peoples Of Asia, Africa, Or South America. Is This Not Why Nations Engage In The Madness Of War Without The Slightest Sense Of Penitence? Is This Not Why The Murder Of A Citizen Of Your Own Nation Is A Crime, But The Murder Of Citizens Of Another Nation In War Is An Act Of Heroic Virtue?

I'm Concerned About A Better World. I'm Concerned About Justice; I'm Concerned About Brotherhood; I'm Concerned About Truth. And When One Is Concerned About That, He Can Never Advocate Violence. For Through Violence You May Murder A Murderer, But You Can't Murder Murder. Through Violence You May Murder A Liar, But You Can't Establish Truth. Through Violence You May Murder A Hater, But You Can't Murder Hate Through Violence. Darkness Cannot Put Out Darkness; Only Light Can Do That.

We Decided To Set Our Direct-action Program Around The Easter Season, Realizing That, With Exception Of Christmas, This Was The Largest Shopping Period Of The Year. Knowing That A Strong Economic Withdrawal Program Would Be The By-product Of Direct Action.

The Beauty Of Genuine Brotherhood And Peace Is More Precious Than Diamonds Or Silver Or Gold.

Hate Multiplies Hate, Violence Multiplies Violence, And Toughness Multiplies Toughness In A Descending Spiral Of Destruction.

There Is No Easy Way To Create A World Where Men And Women Can Live Together... But If Such A World Is Created In Our Lifetime, It Will Be Done By Rejecting The Racism, Materialism, And Violence That Has Characterized Western Civilization And Especially By Working Toward A World Of Brotherhood, Cooperation, And Peace.

We Had No Alternative Except That Of Preparing For Direct Action, Whereby We Would Present Our Very Bodies As A Means Of Laying Our Case Before The Conscience Of The Local And National Community.

Nonviolent Resistance Makes It Possible For The Negro To Remain In The South And Struggle For His Rights. The Negro's Problem Will Not Be Solved By Running Away.

The Time Has Come For America To Hear The Truth About This Tragic War. In International Conflicts, The Truth Is Hard To Come By Because Most Nations Are Deceived About Themselves. Rationalizations And The Incessant Search For Scapegoats Are The Psychological Cataracts That Blind Us To Our Sins. But The Day Has Passed For Superficial Patriotism. He Who Lives With Untruth Lives In Spiritual Slavery.

To Be Negro In America Is To Hope Against Hope.

If A City Has A 30% Negro Population, Then It Is Logical To Assume That Negroes Should Have At Least 30% Of The Jobs In Any Particular Company, And Jobs In All Categories Rather Than Only In Menial Areas.

One Day The Absurdity Of The Almost Universal Human Belief In The Slavery Of Other Animals Will Be Palpable. We Shall Then Have Discovered Our Souls And Become Worthier Of Sharing This Planet With Them.

Slaves Do Not Always Welcome Their Deliverers. They Become Accustomed To Being Slaves. They Would Rather Gear Those Ills They Have

Whatever Effects One Directly, Effects All Indirectly.

Love Is Somehow The Key That Unlocks The Door Which Leads To Ultimate Reality.

Money, Like Any Other Force Such As Electricity, Is Amoral And Can Be Used For Either Good Or Evil.

Mankind's Survival Is Dependent On Man's Ability To Solve The Problems Of Racial Injustice, Poverty, And War; The Solution Of These Problems Is In Turn Dependent Upon Man's Squaring His Moral Progress With His Scientific Progress, And Learning The Practical Art Of Living In Harmony.

I Know That God Is Not Going To Willfully Hurt Us. Why There Is Suffering Is The Business Of The Lord, But He Never Seems To Give Us More Than We Can Bear.

Love Is The Most Durable Power In The World. This Creative Force Is The Most Potent Instrument Available In Mankind's Quest For Peace And Security.

I Think In This Phase, After The Negro Emerges In And From The Desegregated Society, Then A Great Deal Of Time Must Be Spent In Improving Standards Which Lag Behind To A Large Extent Because Of Segregation,discrimination, And The Legacy Of Slavery.

It Is Cheerful To God When You Rejoice Or Laugh From The Bottom Of Your Heart.

Hate Is Just As Injurious To The Hater As It Is To The Hated. Like An Unchecked Cancer, Hate Corrodes The Personality And Eats Away Its Vital Unity. Many Of Our Inner Conflicts Are Rooted In Hate. This Is Why The Psychiatrists Say, "love Or Perish." Hate Is Too Great A Burden To Bear.

Now Let Us Begin. Now Let Us Rededicate Ourselves To The Long And Bitter - But Beautiful - Struggle For A New World.

Darkness Cannot Be Overcome With More Darkness, Only With Light. Violence Cannot Be Overcome With More Violence, Only With Peace.

The Poor Never Get The Job Done They Are Sleepy.

The Movement For Equality And Justice Can Only Be A Success If It Has Both A Mass And Militant Character; The Barriers To Be Overcome Require Both.

I Have Come To See More And More That One Of The Most Decisive Steps That The Negro Can Take Is That Little Walk To The Voting Booth. That Is An Important Step. We've Got To Gain The Ballot, And Through That Gain, Political Power.

My Mommy Always Said There Were No Monsters - No Real Ones - But There Are.

If I Hit You And You Hit Me And I Hit You Back And You Hit Me Back And Go On, You See, That Goes On Ad Infinitum. It Just Never Ends. Somewhere Somebody Must Have A Little Sense, And That's The Strong Person.

Will We Be Extremists For Hate, Or Will We Be Extremists For Love? Will We Be Extremists For The Preservation Of Injustice, Or Will We Be Extremists For The Cause Of Justice?

The Hope Of A Secure And Livable World Lies With Disciplined Nonconformists Who Are Dedicated To Justice, Peace And Brotherhood.

We May Have All Come On Different Ships, But We're In The Same Boat Now.

Even In The Inevitable Moments When All Seems Hopeless, Men Know That Without Hope They Cannot Really Live, And In Agonizing Desperation They Cry For The Bread Of Hope.

The Job Of The School Is To Teach So Well That Family Background Is No Longer An Issue.

A True Revolution Of Values Will See That The Western Arrogance Of Feeling That It Has Everything To Teach Others And Nothing To Learn From Them Is Not Just.

Breaking Silence

There Is Such A Thing As The Freedom Of Exhaustion. Some People Are So Worn Down By The Yoke Of Oppression That They Give Up. [...] The Oppressed Must Never Allow The Conscience Of The Oppressor To Slumber. [...] To Accept Injustice Or Segregation Passively Is To Say To The Oppressor That His Actions Are Morally Right.

Success, Recognition, And Conformity Are The Bywords Of The Modern World Where Everyone Seems To Crave The Anesthetizing Security Of Being Identified With The Majority.

The Non-violent Resistor Not Only Avoids External, Physical Violence, But He Avoids Internal Violence Of Spirit. He Not Only Refuses To Shoot His Opponent, But He Refuses To Hate Him. And He Stands With Understanding, Goodwill At All Times.

Our Scientific Power Has Outrun Our Spiritual Power. We Have Guided Missiles And Misguided Men.

Find A Voice In A Whisper.

Certainly I'm Not Saying That You Sit Down And Patiently Accept Injustice. I'm Talking About A Very Strong Force, Where You Stand Up With All Your Might Against An Evil System, And You Are Not A Coward.

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.

Whenever You Are Engaged In Work That Serves Humanity And Is For The Building Of Humanity, It Has Dignity And It Has Worth.

We Must Face The Appalling Fact That We Have Been Betrayed By Both The Democratic And Republican Parties.

History Is A Great Teacher. Now Everyone Knows That The Labor Movement Did Not Diminish The Strength Of The Nation But Enlarged It. By Raising The Living Standards Of Millions, Labor Miraculously Created A Market For Industry And Lifted The Whole Nation To Undreamed Of Levels Of Production. Those Who Attack Labor Forget These Simple Truths, But History Remembers Them.

Labour Movement

Many Of The Ugly Pages Of American History Have Been Obscured And Forgotten....america Owes A Debt Of Justice Which It Has Only Begun To Pay. If It Loses The Will To Finish Or Slackens In Its Determination, History Will Recall Its Crimes And The Country That Would Be Great Will Lack The Most Indispensable Element Of Greatness-justice.

If I Were Constantly Worried About Death, I Couldn't Function. After A While, If Your Life Is More Or Less Constantly In Peril, You Come To A Point Where You Accept The Possibility Philosophically.

We've Been In The Mountain Of War. We've Been In The Mountain Of Violence. We've Been In The Mountain Of Hatred Long Enough. It Is Necessary To Move On Now, But Only By Moving Out Of This Mountain Can We Move To The Promised Land Of Justice And Brotherhood And The Kingdom Of God. It All Boils Down To The Fact That We Must Never Allow Ourselves To Become Satisfied With Unattained Goals. We Must Always Maintain A Kind Of Divine Discontent.

Love Is The Supreme Unifying Principle Of Life.

There Is A Power In Love That Our World Has Not Discovered Yet. Jesus Discovered It Centuries Ago. Mahatma Gandhi Of India Discovered It A Few Years Ago, But Most Men And Most Women Never Discover It. For They Believe In Hitting For Hitting; They Believe In An Eye For An Eye And A Tooth For A Tooth; They Believe In Hating For Hating; But Jesus Comes To Us And Says, 'this Isn't The Way.'

Education Without Direction Is A One-sided Social Value. Direct Action Without Education Is A Meaningless Expression Of Pure Energy.

Life's Most Persistent And Urgent Question Is: What Are You Doing For Others? Living Is A Form Of Not Being Sure, Not Knowing What Next Or How. The Moment You Know How, You Begin To Die A Little.

You Have Very Little Morally Persuasive Power With People Who Can Feel Your Underlying Contempt.

On Some Positions, Cowardice Asks The Question, Is It Expedient? And Then Expedience Comes Along And Asks The Question, Is It Politic? Vanity Asks The Question, Is It Popular? Conscience Asks The Question, Is It Right? There Comes A Time When One Must Take The Position That Is Neither Safe Nor Politic Nor Popular, But He Must Do It Because Conscience Tells Him It Is Right.

Everybody Can Be Great, Because Everybody Can Serve. [...] You Only Need A Heart Full Of Grace.

I Cannot Sit Idly By In Atlanta And Not Be Concerned About What Happens In Birmingham.

Injustice Anywhere

The Labor Movement Was The Principal Force That Transformed Misery And Despair Into Hope And Progress. Out Of Its Bold Struggles, Economic And Social Reform Gave Birth To Unemployment Insurance, Old Age Pensions, Government Relief For The Destitute, And, Above All, New Wage Levels That Meant Not Mere Survival But A Tolerable Life.

Free At Last, Free At Last, Thank God Almighty We Are Free At Last.

Never, Never Be Afraid To Do What's Right.

Civil Rights Leaders

Nothing Degrades A Man Do More Than The Allowed Stoop So Low As To Hate Someone

If You Haven't Found Something Worth Dying For, You're Not Fit To Live.

One Who Breaks An Unjust Law Must Do So Openly, Lovingly, And With A Willingness To Accept The Penalty.

The Supreme Task Is To Organize And Unite People So That Their Anger Becomes A Transforming Force.

True Sympathy Is The Personal Concern Which Demands The Giving Of One's Soul.

Quietly Endure, Silently Suffer And Patiently Wait.

Carve A Tunnel Of Hope Through The Dark Mountain Of Disappointment.

We Must Accept Finite Disappointment, But Never Lose Infinite Hope.

The Ultimate Weakness Of Violence Is That It Is A Descending Spiral, Begetting The Very Thing It Seeks To Destroy. Instead Of Diminishing Evil, It Multiplies It.

Violence Is Not The Way.

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.

Will We March Only To The Music Of Time, Or Will We, Risking Criticism And Abuse, March To The Soul-saving Music Of Eternity?

If I Lived In A Communist Country Today Where Certain Principles Dear To The Christian Faith Are Suppressed, I Believe I Would Openly Advocate Disobeying These Anti-religious Laws.

The Contemporary Tendency In Our Society Is To Base Our Distribution On Scarcity, Which Has Vanished, And To Compress Our Abundance Into The Overfed Mouths Of The Middle And Upper Classes Until They Gag With Superfluity. If Democracy Is To Have Breadth Of Meaning, It Is Necessary To Adjust This Inequity. It Is Not Only Moral, But It Is Also Intelligent. We Are Wasting And Degrading Human Life By Clinging To Archaic Thinking.

Many Of The Ugly Pages Of American History Have Been Obscured And Forgotten. A Society Is Always Eager To Cover Misdeeds With A Cloak Of Forgetfulness, But No Society Can Fully Repress An Ugly Past When The Ravages Persist Into The Present. America Owes A Debt Of Justice Which It Has Only Begun To Pay. If It Loses The Will To Finish Or Slackens In Its Determination, History Will Recall Its Crimes And The Country That Would Be Great Will Lack The Most Indispensable Element Of Greatness — Justice.

It Is My Hope That As The Negro Plunges Deeper Into The Quest For Freedom And Justice He Will Plunge Even Deeper Into The Philosophy Of Non-violence. The Negro All Over The South Must Come To The Point That He Can Say To His White Brother: "we Will Match Your Capacity To Inflict Suffering With Our Capacity To Endure Suffering. We Will Meet Your Physical Force With Soul Force. We Will Not Hate You, But We Will Not Obey Your Evil Laws. We Will Soon Wear You Down By Pure Capacity To Suffer".

What Are You Doing For Others?

Peace Is Not Merely The Absence Of War But The Presence Of Justice, Of Law, Of Order —in Short, Of Government.

Occasionally In Life There Are Those Moments Of Unutterable Fulfillment Which Cannot Be Completely Explained By Those Symbols Called Words. Their Meanings Can Only Be Articulated By The Inaudible Language Of The Heart.

Whatever Affects One Directly, Affects All Indirectly. I Can Never Be What I Ought To Be Until You Are What You Ought To Be. This Is The Interrelated Structure Of Reality.

The Problem Of Racism, The Problem Of Economic Exploitation, And The Problem Of War Are All Tied Together. These Are The Triple Evils That Are Interrelated.

For Years, I Labored With The Idea Of Reforming The Existing Institutions In The South, A Little Change Here, A Little Change There. Now I Feel Quite Differently. I Think You've Got To Have A Reconstruction Of The Entire System, A Revolution Of Values.

If We Do An Eye For An Eye And A Tooth For A Tooth, We Will Be A Blind And Toothless Nation.

I" Cannot Reach Fulfillment Without "thou." The Self Cannot Be Self Without Other Selves. Self-concern Without Other-concern Is Like A Tributary That Has No Outward Flow To The Ocean.

Every Man Must Decide Whether He Will Walk In The Light Of Creative Altruism Or In The Darkness Of Destructive Selfishness.

It's Not How Long You Live, It's How Well You Live.

If We Get Setbacks And If Something Happens Where The Civil Rights Bill Is Watered Down, For Instance, If The Negro Feels That He Can Do Nothing But Move From One Ghetto To Another And One Slum To Another, The Despair And The Disappointment Will Be So Great That It Will Be Very Difficult To Keep The Struggle Disciplined And Nonviolent.

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