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Love Is Basic For The Very Survival Of Mankind. I'm Convinced That Love Is The Only Absolute Ultimately; Love Is The Highest Good. He Who Loves Has Somehow Discovered The Meaning Of Ultimate Reality. He Who Hates Does Not Know God; He Who Hates Has No Knowledge Of God. Love Is The Supreme Unifying Principle Of Life.

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Love Is Basic For

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Love Is Basic For The Very Survival Of Mankind. I'm Convinced That Love Is The Only Absolute Ultimately; Love Is The Highest Good. He Who Loves Has Somehow Discovered The Meaning Of Ultimate Reality. He Who Hates Does Not Know God; He Who Hates Has No Knowledge Of God. Love Is The Supreme Unifying Principle Of Life.

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You See, My Friends...you Begin To Ask The Questions, 'who Owns The Oil?' You Begin To Ask The Question, 'who Owns The Iron Ore?' You Begin To Ask The Question, 'why Is It That People Have To Pay Water Bills In A World That Is Two-thirds Water?'

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

The Sweltering Summer Of The Negro's Legitimate Discontent Will Not Pass Until There Is An Invigorating Autumn Of Freedom And Equality.

I've Seen Too Much Hate To Want To Hate, Myself.

Rioting Is Not Revolutionary.

Unfortunately, Most Of The Major Denominations Still Practice Segregation In Local Churches, Hospitals, Schools, And Other Church Institutions. It Is Appalling That The Most Segregated Hour Of Christian America Is Eleven O'clock On Sunday Morning, The Same Hour When Many Are Standing To Sing: "in Christ There Is No East Nor West.

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.

Man Must Never Be Treated As A Means To The End Of The State, But Always As An End Within Himself.

In No Sense Do I Advocate Evading Or Defying The Law . . That Would Lead To Anarchy.

The Sooner Our Society Admits That The Negro Revolution Is No Momentary Outburst Soon To Subside Into Placid Passivity, The Easier The Future Will Be For Us All.

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.

Civilization And Violence Are Antithetical Concepts.

I Never Cease To Wonder At The Amazing Presumption Of Much Of White Society, Assuming That They Have The Right To Bargain With The Negro For His Freedom.

We Must Develop A Federal Program Of Public Works, Retraining, And Jobs For All - So That None, White Or Black, Will Have Cause To Feel Threatened . . . There Is Nothing Except Shortsightedness To Prevent Us From Guaranteeing An Annual Minimum And Livable Income For Every American Family.

He Who Is Greatest Among You Shall Be A Servant. That's The New Definition Of Greatness. ... By Giving That Definition Of Greatness, It Means That Everybody Can Be Great, Because Everybody Can Serve.

There Is Nothing More Dangerous Than To Build A Society With A Large Segment Of People In That Society Who Feel That They Have No Stake In It; Who Feel That That Have Nothing To Lose. People Who Have Stake In Their Society, Protect That Society, But When They Don't Have It, They Unconsciously Want To Destroy It.

Nothing To Lose

The White Poor Also Suffer Deprivation And The Humiliation Of Poverty If Not Of Color. They Are Chained By The Weight Of Discrimination Though Its Badge Of Degradation Does Not Mark Them. It Corrupts Their Lives, Frustrates Their Opportunities And Withers Their Education. In One Sense It Is More Evil For Them Because It Has Confused So Many By Prejudice That They Have Supported Their Own Oppressors.

It Does Not Matter How Long You Live, But How Well You Do It.

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

Music Is The Best Consolation For A Despaired Man

It Is A Strangely Irrational Notion That There Is Something In The Very Flow Of Time That Will Inevitably Cure All Ills. Actually Time Is Neutral. It Can Be Used Either Destructively Or Constructively. I Am Coming To Feel That The People Of Ill Will Have Used Time Much More Effectively Than The People Of Good Will. We Will Have To Repent In This Generation Not Merely For The Vitriolic Words And Actions Of The Bad People, But For The Appalling Silence Of The Good People.

Nothing Pains Some People More Than Having To Think

Power Is The Ability To Achieve Purpose.

Loving Your Enemies... Far From Being The Pious Injunction Of A Utopian Dreamer, This Demand Is An Absolute Necessity For The Survival Of Our Civilization. Yes It Is Love That Will Save Our World And Civilization; Love Even For Our Enemies.

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.

It Will Be One Of The Tragedies Of Christian History If Future Historians Record That At The Height Of The Twentieth Century The Church Was One Of The Greatest Bulwarks Of White Supremacy.

I Have A Dream That One Day On The Red Hills Of Georgia, The Sons Of Former Slaves And The Sons Of Former Slave Owners Will Be Able To Sit Together At The Table Of Brotherhood.

Jesus Is Not An Impractical Idealist; He Is The Practical Realist.

There Are Often Multiple Sources For Some Famous Statements By King; As A Professional Speaker And Minister He Used Some Significant Phrases With Only Slight Variation Many Times In His Essays, Books, And His Speeches To Different Audiences.

Through Nonviolent Resistance The Negro Will Be Able To Rise To The Noble Height Of Opposing The Unjust System While Loving The Perpetrators Of The System.

We Can Walk Through The Darkest Night With The Radiant Conviction That All Things Work Together For The Good.

Working Together

Sooner Or Later, All The Peoples Of The World Will Have To Discover A Way To Live Together In Peace, And Thereby Transform This Pending Cosmic Elegy Into A Creative Psalm Of Brotherhood.

Human Salvation Lies In The Hands Of The Creatively Maladjusted.

Nonviolence Is The Most Potent Technique For Oppressed People. Unearned Suffering Is Redemptive.

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. Nothing Worthwhile Is Easy. Your Ability To Overcome Unfavorable Situations Will Provide You With Time To Demonstrate Your True Strength And Determination For Success. Always Set Your Standards High, Your Greatest Achievements Lie Within The Infinite Feats You Achieve In Your Life.

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

I Was Convinced That Worship At Its Best Is A Social Experience With People Of All Levels Of Life Coming Together To Realize Their Oneness And Unity Under God. Whenever The Church, Consciously Or Unconsciously, Caters To One Class It Loses The Spiritual Force Of The "whosoever Will, Let Him Come, Doctrine And Is In Danger Of Becoming A Little More Than A Social Club With A Thin Veneer Of Religiosity."

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

We Are Faced With The Fact, My Friends, That Tomorrow Is Today. Procrastination Is Still The Thief Of Time. Over The Bleached Bones And Jumbled Residues Of Numerous Civilizations Are Written The Pathetic Words ‘too Late’.

Procrastination

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

Love Is The Only Force Capable Of Transforming An Enemy Into Friend.

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

I Choose To Identify With The Underprivileged, I Choose To Give My Life For The Hungry, I Choose To Give My Life For Those Who Have Been Left Out Of The Sunlight Of Opportunity . . . This Is The Way I'm Going. If It Means Suffering, I'm Going That Way. If It Means Dying For Them, I'm Going That Way, Because I Heard A Voice Saying Do Something For Others.

The Soft-minded Man Always Fears Change. He Feels Security In The Status Quo, And He Has An Almost Morbid Fear Of The New. For Him, The Greatest Pain Is The Pain Of A New Idea.

Look To A Day When People Will Not Be Judged By The Color Of Their Skin.

We Were Taking The Black Young Men Who Had Been Crippled By Our Society And Sending Them Eight Thousand Miles Away To Guarantee Liberties In Southeast Asia Which They Had Not Found In Southwest Georgia And East Harlem.

Man Is Not Made For The State; The State Is Made For Man. To Deprive Man Of Freedom Is To Relegate Him To The Status Of A Thing, Rather Than Elevate Him To The Status Of A Person. Man Must Never Be Treated As A Means To The End Of The State, But Always As An End Within Himself.

Call It Democracy, Or Call It Democratic Socialism, But There Must Be A Better Distribution Of Wealth Within This Country For All God's Children.

We All Too Often Have Socialism For The Rich And Rugged Free Market Capitalism For The Poor.

African American

Courage Is An Inner Resolution To Go Forward Despite Obstacles; Cowardice Is Submissive Surrender To Circumstances.

Personality Is Like A Charioteer With Two Headstrong Horses, Each Wanting To Go In Different Directions.

When People Get Caught Up With That Which Is Right And They Are Willing To Sacrifice For It, There Is No Stopping Point Short Of Victory.

When Our Days Become Dreary With Low-hovering Clouds And Our Nights Become Darker Than A Thousand Midnights, We Will Know That We Are Living In The Creative Turmoil Of A Genuine Civilization Struggling To Be Born.

The Church Must Be The Critic And Guide Of The State, And Never Its Tool.

We Must Have Our Freedom Now. We Must Have The Right To Vote. We Must Have Equal Protection Of The Law.

My Country, 'tis Of Thee, Sweet Land Of Liberty, Of Thee I Sing. Land Where My Fathers Died, Land Of The Pilgrim's Pride, From Every Mountainside, Let Freedom Ring.

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

When We See Social Relationships Controlled Everywhere By The Principles Which Jesus Illustrated In Life -- Trust, Love, Mercy, And Altruism -- Then We Shall Know That The Kingdom Of God Is Here.

We Stand In Life At Midnight; We Are Always At The Threshold Of A New Dawn.

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.

The Poor Never Get The Job Done They Are Sleepy.

Violence Is Immoral Because It Thrives On Hatred Rather Than Love. It Destroys Community And Makes Brotherhood Impossible. It Leaves Society In Monologue Rather Than Dialogue. Violence Ends By Defeating Itself. It Creates Bitterness In The Survivors And Brutality In The Destroyers.

Ten Cures For Depression Are To Go Out And Do Something For Someone Else And Repeat It Nine Times.

Morality Cannot Be Legislated, But Behavior Can Be Regulated. Judicial Decrees May Not Change The Heart, But They Can Restrain The Heartless.

Every Man Is Somebody Because He Is A Child Of God.

Make A Career Of Humanity. Commit Yourself To The Noble Struggle For Equal Rights. You Will Make A Greater Person Of Yourself, A Greater Nation Of Your Country, And A Finer World To Live In.

World Peace Through Nonviolent Means Is Neither Absurd Nor Unattainable. All Other Methods Have Failed. Thus We Must Begin Anew. Nonviolence Is A Good Starting Point. Those Of Us Who Believe In This Method Can Be Voices Of Reason, Sanity, And Understanding Amid The Voices Of Violence, Hatred, And Emotion. We Can Very Well Set A Mood Of Peace Out Of Which A System Of Peace Can Be Built.

Freedom Is Never Voluntarily Given By The Oppressor; It Must Be Demanded By The Oppressed.

Without Love, Benevolence Becomes Egotism.

That Old Law About 'an Eye For An Eye' Leaves Everybody Blind. The Time Is Always Right To Do The Right Thing.

Faith Is Taking The First Step Even When You Don't See The Whole Staircase.

I Plan To Stand By Nonviolence, Because I Have Found It To Be A Philosophy Of Life That Regulates Not Only My Dealings In The Struggle For Racial Justice, But Also My Dealings With People, And With My Own Self.

There Is Something In The Soul That Cries Out For Freedom.

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.

If A Person Sweeps Streets For A Living, He Should Sweep Them As Michelangelo Painted, As Beethoven Composed, As Shakespear Wrote.

What You Get With Violence Can Be Maintained Only With Violence

Now Is The Time To Make Real The Promises Of Democracy. Now Is The Time To Rise From The Dark And Desolate Valley Of Segregation To The Sunlit Path Of Racial Justice. Now Is The Time To Lift Our Nation From The Quicksands Of Racial Injustice To The Solid Rock Of Brotherhood. Now Is The Time To Make Justice A Reality For All Of God’s Children.

I Would Not Hesitate To Say That It Is Unfortunate That So-called Demonstrations Are Taking Place In Birmingham At This Time, But I Would Say In More Emphatic Terms That It Is Even More Unfortunate That The White Power Structure Of This City Left The Negro Community With No Other Alternative.

We Will Not Be Satisfied Until Justice Rolls Down Like Waters.

I Have A Dream Speech

You Have To Keep Moving Forward

Keep Moving Forward

Nonviolent Direct Action Seeks To Create Such A Crisis And Establish Such Creative Tension That A Community That Has Consistently Refused To Negotiate Is Forced To Confront The Issue.

I Say To You Today, My Friends, So Even Though We Face The Difficulties Of Today And Tomorrow, I Still Have A Dream.

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

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

There Is Nothing More Tragic In All The World Than To Know Right And Not To Do It.

It Is Our Experience That The Nation Doesn't Move Around Questions Of Genuine Equality For The Poor And For Black People Until It Is Confronted Massively, Dramatically In Terms Of Direct Action.

It Is Not Only Poverty That Torments The Negro; It Is The Fact Of Poverty Amid Plenty. It Is A Misery Generated By The Gulf Between The Affluence He Sees In The Mass Media And The Deprivation He Experiences In His Everyday Life.

There's Another Reason Why You Should Love Your Enemies, And That Is Because Hate Distorts The Personality Of The Hater. We Usually Think Of What Hate Does For The Individual Hated Or The Individuals Hated Or The Groups Hated. But It Is Even More Tragic, It Is Even More Ruinous And Injurious To The Individual Who Hates. [...] For The Person Who Hates, The True Becomes False And The False Becomes True. That's What Hate Does.

One Of The Most Persistent Ambiguities That We Face Is That Everybody Talks About Peace As A Goal. However, It Does Not Take Sharpest-eyed Sophistication To Discern That While Everbody Talks About Peace, Peace Has Become Practically Nobody's Business Among The Power-wielders. Many Men Cry Peace! Peace! But They Refuse To Do The Things That Make For Peace.

We Have Flown The Air Like Birds And Swum The Sea Like Fishes, But Have Yet To Learn The Simple Act Of Walking The Earth Like Brothers.

[people] Don't See That There's A Great Deal Of A Difference Between Nonresistance To Evil And Nonviolent Resistance.

And So We Shall Have To Do More Than Register And More Than Vote; We Shall Have To Create Leaders Who Embody Virtues We Can Respect, Who Have Moral And Ethical Principles We Can Applaud With Enthusiasm.

Ethical Principles

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

Love Is Creative, Understanding Goodwill For All Men. It Is The Refusal To Defeat Any Individual. When You Rise To The Level Of Love, Of Its Great Beauty And Power, You Seek Only To Defeat Evil Systems. Individuals Who Happen To Be Caught Up In That System, You Love, But You Seek To Defeat The System.

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.

On The One Hand We Are Called To Play The Good Samaritan On Life's Roadside; But That Will Be Only An Initial Act. One Day We Must Come To See That The Whole Jericho Road Must Be Transformed So That Men And Women Will Not Be Constantly Beaten And Robbed As They Make Their Journey On Life's Highway. True Compassion Is More Than Flinging A Coin To A Beggar; It Is Not Haphazard And Superficial. It Comes To See That An Edifice Which Produces Beggars Needs Restructuring. "a Time To Break Silence," At Riverside Church

A Nation That Will Keep People In Slavery For 244 Years Will "thingify" Them And Make Them Things. And Therefore, They Will Exploit Them And Poor People Generally Economically. And A Nation That Will Exploit Economically Will Have To Have Foreign Investments And Everything Else, And It Will Have To Use Its Military Might To Protect Them. All Of These Problems Are Tied Together. What I'm Saying Today Is That We Must Go From This Convention And Say, "america, You Must Be Born Again!"

In This Revolution, No Plans Have Been Written For Retreat. Those Who Will Not Get Into Step Will Find That The Parade Has Passed Them By.

Science Investigates, Religion Interprets. Science Gives Man Knowledge Which Is Power, Religion Gives Man Wisdom Which Is Control. Science Deals Mainly With Facts, Religion Deals With Values. The Two Are Not Rivals. They Are Complementary.

People Are Often Led To Causes And Often Become Committed To Great Ideas Through Persons Who Personify Those Ideas. They Have To Find The Embodiment Of The Idea In Flesh And Blood In Order To Commit Themselves To It.

I Have An Ultimate Faith In America And An Audacious Faith In Mankind.

Three Simple Words Can Describe The Nature Of The Social Revolution That Is Talking Place And What Negroes Really Want. They Are The Words "all," "now," And "here."

Is Your Heart Right? If Your Heart Isn't Right, Fix It Up Today.

True Compassion Is More Than Throwing A Coin To A Beggar. It Demands Of Our Humanity That If We Live In A Society That Produces Beggars, We Are Morally Commanded To Restructure That Society.

Resistance And Nonviolence Are Not In Themselves Good. There Is Another Element That Must Be Present In Our Struggle That Then Makes Our Resistance And Nonviolence Truly Meaningful. That Element Is Reconciliation. Our Ultimate End Must Be The Creation Of The Beloved Community.

Beloved Community

We Can No Longer Afford To Worship The God Of Hate Or Bow Before The Altar Of Retaliation. The Oceans Of History Are Made Turbulent By The Ever-rising Tides Of Hate. History Is Cluttered With The Wreckage Of Nations And Individuals That Pursued This Self-defeating Path Of Hate. Love Is The Key To The Solution Of The Problems Of The World.

Injustice Anywhere Is A Threat To Justice Everywhere.

Why Should There Be Hunger And Deprivation In Any Land, In Any City, At Any Table, When Man Has The Resources And The Scientific Know-how To Provide All Mankind With The Basic Necessities Of Life? There Is No Deficit In Human Resources. The Deficit Is In Human Will.

We Are Challenged To Develop A World Perspective. No Individual Can Live Alone, No Nation Can Live Alone, And Anyone Who Feels That He Can Live Alone Is Sleeping Through A Revolution. The World In Which We Live Is Geographically One.

The Softminded Person Always Wants To Freeze The Moment And Hold Life In The Gripping Yoke Of Sameness.

I Question And Soul-search Constantly Into Myself To Be As Certain As I Can That I Am Fulfilling The True Meaning Of My Work, That I Am Maintaining My Sense Of Purpose, That I Am Holding Fast To My Ideals, That I Am Guiding My People In The Right Direction.

But By All Means, Keep Moving.

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.

One Who Breaks An Unjust Law That Conscience Tells Him Is Unjust ... Is In Reality Expressing The Highest Respect For Law ... We Will Not Obey Your Evil Laws.

A World War - God Forbid! - Will Leave Only Smoldering Ashes As A Mute Testimony Of A Human Race Whose Folly Led Inexorably To Untimely Death. Yet There Are Those Who Sincerely Feel That Disarmament Is An Evil And International Negotiation Is An Abominable Waste Of Time.

The Time Has Come For An All-out War Against Poverty. The Rich Nations Must Use Their Vast Resources Of Wealth To Develop The Underdeveloped, School The Unschooled, And Feed The Unfed. Ultimately A Great Nation Is A Compassionate Nation. No Individual Or Nation Can Be Great If It Does Not Have A Concern For "the Least Of These".

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.

The Church Must Be Reminded That It Is Not The Master, Or The Servant Of The State, But Rather The Conscience Of The State.

We Were All Involved In The Death Of John Kennedy. We Tolerated Hate; We Tolerated The Sick Stimulation Of Violence In All Walks Of Life; And We Tolerated The Differential Application Of Law, Which Said That A Man's Life Was Sacred Only If We Agreed With His Views.

The Quality, Not The Longevity, Of One's Life Is What Is Important.

Was Not Abraham Lincoln An Extremist? - "this Nation Cannot Survive Half Slave And Half Free."

I Have Decided To Love. If You Are Seeking The Highest Good, I Think You Can Find It Through Love. God Is Love.

All Men Are Caught In An Inescapable Network Of Mutuality.

Negro Leaders Sought To Negotiate With The City Fathers. But The Political Leaders Consistently Refused To Engage In Good-faith Negotiation.

All Progress Is Precarious, And The Solution Of One Problem Brings Us Face To Face With Another Problem.

Nonviolent Action, The Negro Saw, Was The Way To Supplement, Not Replace, The Progress Of Change. It Was The Way To Divest Himself Of Passivity Without Arraying Himself In Vindictive Force.

War Is The Greatest Plague That Can Afflict Mankind... Any Scourge Is Preferable To It.

You Only Need A Heart Full Of Grace

I Do Think There Must Be Centralized Leadership In The Sense That, Say, In Our Struggle All Of The Leaders Coordinate Their Efforts, Cooperate And, And At Least Evince A Degree Of Unity.

I Think That We've Got To Come To See This. The Negro Is An American.

The Major Problem Of Life Is Learning How To Handle The Costly Interruptions.

I Look Forward Confidently To The Day When All Who Work For A Living Will Be One With No Thought To Their Separateness As Negroes, Jews, Italians Or Any Other Distinctions. This Will Be The Day When We Bring Into Full Realization The American Dream -- A Dream Yet Unfulfilled.

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?

Everything That We See Is A Shadow Cast By That Which We Do Not See.

The Method Of Nonviolence Seeks Not To Humiliate And Not To Defeat The Oppressor, But It Seeks To Win His Friendship And His Understanding. And Thereby And Therefore The Aftermath Of This Method Is Reconciliation.

Once You Become Dedicated To A Cause, Personal Security Is Not The Goal. What Will Happen To You Personally Does Not Matter. My Cause, My Race, Is Worth Dying For.

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.

There Is No Sound More Powerful Than The Marching Feet Of A Determined People.

One Day We Will Learn That The Heart Can Never Be Totally Right When The Head Is Totally Wrong

Be The Best Of Whatever You Are.

With All Of Its False Assumptions And Evil Methods, Communism Grew As A Protest Against The Hardships Of The Underprivileged. Communism In Theory Emphasized A Classless Society, And A Concern For Social Justice, Though The World Knows From Sad Experience That In Practice It Created New Classes And A New Lexicon Of Injustice.

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.

Racial Segregation Must Be Seen For What It Is, And That Is An Evil System, A New Form Of Slavery Covered Up With Certain Niceties Of Complexity.

In Our Struggle Against Racial Segregation In Montgomery, Alabama, I Came To See At A Very Early Stage That A Synthesis Of Gandhi's Method Of Nonviolence And The Christian Ethic Of Love Is The Best Weapon Available To Negroes For This Struggle For Freedom And Human Dignity. It May Well Be That The Gandhian Approach Will Bring About A Solution To The Race Problem In America. His Spirit Is A Continual Reminder To Oppressed People That It Is Possible To Resist Evil And Yet Not Resort To Violence.

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

[w]e Are The Heirs Of A Past Of Rope, Fire, And Murder. I For One Am Not Ashamed Of This Past. My Shame Is For Those Who Became So Inhuman That They Could Inflict This Torture Upon Us.

The Negro Has No Room To Make Any Substantial Compromises Because His Store Of Advantages Is Too Small. He Must Press Unrelentingly For Quality, Integrated Education Or His Whole Drive For Freedom Will Be Undermined By The Absence Of A Most Vital And Indispensable Element - Learning.

Though We Live In The Colony Of Time, We Are Ultimately Responsible To The Empire Of Eternity.

We Should Never Forget That Everything Adolf Hitler Did In Germany Was “legal” And Everything The Hungarian Freedom Fighters Did In Hungary Was “illegal.” It Was “illegal” To Aid And Comfort A Jew In Hitler’s Germany. Even So, I Am Sure That, Had I Lived In Germany At The Time, I Would Have Aided And Comforted My Jewish Brothers. If Todayi Lived In A Communist Country Where Certain Principles Dear To The Christian Faith Are Suppressed, I Would Openly Advocate Disobeying That Country's Antireligious Laws.

I Am Convinced That Love Is The Most Durable Power In The World. It Is Not An Expression Of Impractical Idealism, But Of Practical Realism.

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.

It Is Love That Will Save Our World And Our Civilization.

Not Everybody Can Be Famous But Everybody Can Be Great, Because Greatness Is Determined By Service.

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.

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.

In A World Facing The Revolt Of Ragged And Hungry Masses Of God's Children; In A World Torn Between The Tensions Of East And West, White And Colored, Individuals And Collectivists; In A World Whose Cultural And Spiritual Power Lags So Far Behind Her Technological Capabilities That We Live Each Day On The Verge Of Nuclear Co-annihilation; In This World, Nonviolence Is No Longer An Option For Intellectual Analysis, It Is An Imperative For Action

This Is The Unusual Thing About Nonviolence -- Nobody Is Defeated, Everybody Shares In The Victory.

The Greatest Purveyor Of Violence In The World : My Own Government, I Can Not Be Silent.

By Its Very Nature, Hate Destroys And Tears Down; By Its Very Nature, Love Creates And Builds Up.

Often The Oppressor Goes Along Unaware Of The Evil Involved In His Oppression So Long As The Oppressed Accepts It.

Let Us Develop A Kind Of Dangerous Unselfishness.

We Must Meet The Forces Of Hate With The Power Of Love.

If You Want To Be Important-wonderful. If You Want To Be Recognized-wonderful. If You Want To Be Great-wonderful. But Recognize That He Who Is Greatest Among You Shall Be Your Servant. That's A New Definition Of Greatness.

And I Say To You, I Have Decided To Stick With Love, For I Know That Love Is Ultimately The Only Answer To Mankind's Problems. And I'm Going To Talk About It Everywhere I Go. For I Have Seen Too Much Hate... Every Time I See It, I Know That It Does Something To Their Faces And Their Personalities, And I Say To Myself That Hate Is Too Great A Burden To Bear. I Have Decided To Love.

How Hard It Is For People To Live Without Someone To Look Down Upon-really To Look Down Upon. It Is Not Just That They Feel Cheated Out Of Someone To Hate. It Is That They Are Compelled To Look More Closely Into Themselves And What They Don't Like About Themselves.

We All Can't Be Famous But We Can All Be Great And We Become Great When We Serve Others

Whatever My Doubts, However Heavy The Burden, I Feel That I Must Accept The Task Of Helping To Make This Nation And This World A Better Place To Live In - For All Men, Black And White Alike.

Black And White

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

Life's Most Persistent And Urgent Question Is, 'what Are You Doing For Others?'

The 'tide In The Affairs Of Men' Does Not Remain At The Flood; It Ebbs. We May Cry Out Desperately For Time To Pause In Her Passage, But Time Is Deaf To Every Plea And Rushes On. Over The Bleached Bones And Jumbled Residue Of Numerous Civilizations Are Written The Pathetic Words: 'too Late...'

The Evils Of Capitalism Are As Real As The Evils Of Militarism And Evils Of Racism.

The Ability To Lead A Happy Life Is Made, Not Found

Mind Your Own Business

We Need To Recapture The Gospel Glow Of The Early Christians Who Were Nonconformists In The Truest Sense Of The Word . . . Their Powerful Gospel Put An End To Such Barbaric Evils As Infanticide And Bloody Gladiatorial Contests. Finally, They Captured The Roman Empire For Jesus Christ.

Too Unconcerned To Love And Too Passionless To Hate, Too Detached To Be Selfish And Too Lifeless To Be Unselfish, Too Indifferent To Experience Joy And Too Cold To Express Sorrow, They Are Neither Dead Nor Alive; They Merely Exist.

There Is Nothing But A Lack Of Social Vision To Prevent Us From Paying An Adequate Wage To Every American Citizen Whether He Be A Hospital Worker, Laundry Worker, Maid Or Day Laborer

It Is Precisely Because Education Is The Road To Equality And Citizenship, That It Has Been Made More Elusive For Negroes Than Many Other Rights. The Walling Off Of Negroes From Equal Education Is Part Of The Historical Design To Submerge Him In Second Class Status. Therefore, As Negroes Have Struggled To Be Free They Have Had To Fight For The Opportunity For A Decent Education.

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.

The Most Dangerous Criminal May Be The Man Gifted With Reason, But With No Morals.

Don't Let Anybody Make You Think That God Chose America As His Divine, Messianic Force To Be A Sort Of Policeman Of The Whole World.

Some Things Are Right, Whether Nobody Sees You Doing Them Or Not.

We Talk Eloquently About Our Commitment To The Principles Of Christianity, And Yet Our Lives Are Saturated With The Practices Of Paganism. We Proclaim Our Devotion To Democracy, But We Sadly Practice The Very Opposite Of The Democratic Creed.... This Strange Dichotomy, This Agonizing Gulf Between The Ought And The Is, Represents The Tragic Theme Of Man's Earthly Pilgrimage.

Time Has Been Used Destructively By People Of Ill Will Much More Than It Has Been Used Constructively By Those Of Good Will.

Jesus Recognized That Love Is Greater Than Like.

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.

The Modern Choice Is Between Non-violence Or Non-existence.

The Best Way To Solve Any Problem Is To Remove Its Cause.

The Arc Of The Moral Universe Is Long But It Bends Toward Justice.

Find A Voice In A Whisper.

This Is The Great New Problem Of Mankind. We Have Inherited A Large House, A Great ‘world House’ In Which We Have To Live Together– Black And White, Easterner And Westerner, Gentile And Jew, Catholic And Protestant, Muslim And Hindu– A Family Unduly Separated In Ideas, Culture And Interest, Who, Because We Can Never Again Live Apart, Must Learn Somehow To Live With Each Other In Peace.

Black And White

My Uncertainty Disappeared. Segregation Is Evil, And I Cannot, As A Minister, Condone Evil.

And Before You Finish Eating Breakfast In The Morning, You've Depended On More Than Half Of The World. This Is The Way Our Universe Is Structured, This Is Its Interrelated Quality.

It Is Not Enough To Say We Must Not Wage War. It Is Necessary To Love Peace And Sacrifice For It.

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.'

In Our Society It Is Murder, Psychologically, To Deprive A Man Of A Job Or An Income. You Are In Substance Saying To That Man That He Has No Right To Exist. You Are In A Real Way Depriving Him Of Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Happiness, Denying In His Case The Very Creed Of His Society.

To Have Peace In The World, Men & Nations Must Embrace The Nonviolent Assertion That Ends And Means Must Cohere.

Some People Are So Worn Down By The Yoke Of Oppression That They Give Up.

Be True To What You Said On Paper.

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.

There Are Always Those Who Say Legislation Can't Solve The Problem. There Is A Half-truth Involved Here. It Is True That Legislation Cannot Solve The Whole Problem. It Can Solve Some Of The Problem. It May Be True That Morality Can't Be Legislated, But Behavior Can Be Regulated.

Pity May Represent Little More Than The Impersonal Concern Which Prompts The Mailing Of A Check, But True Sympathy Is The Personal Concern Which Demands The Giving Of One's Soul.

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Jose Ramos-Horta

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