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The Christians Who Engaged In Infamous Persecutions And Shameful Inquisitions Were Not Evil Men But Misguided Men. The Churchmen Who Felt They Had An Edict From God To Withstand The Progress Of Science, Whether In The Form Of A Copernican Revolution Or A Darwinian Theory Of Natural Selection, Were Not Mischievous Men But Misinformed Men. And So Christ's Words From The Cross Are Written In Sharp-edged Terms Across Some Of The Most Inexpressible Tragedies Of History: 'they Know Not What They Do'.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
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The Christians Who Engaged

Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Christians Who Engaged In Infamous Persecutions And Shameful Inquisitions Were Not Evil Men But Misguided Men. The Churchmen Who Felt They Had An Edict From God To Withstand The Progress Of Science, Whether In The Form Of A Copernican Revolution Or A Darwinian Theory Of Natural Selection, Were Not Mischievous Men But Misinformed Men. And So Christ's Words From The Cross Are Written In Sharp-edged Terms Across Some Of The Most Inexpressible Tragedies Of History: 'they Know Not What They Do'.
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Christian
Science
Men
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Work Related
Wells
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Hate
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Silence
Neutrality
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Expression
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Germany
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Thinking
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War
Believe
The Quality, Not The Longevity, Of One's Life Is What Is Important.
Life
Time
Important
I Am Convinced That It Is One Of The Most Unjust Wars That Has Ever Been Fought In The History Of The World. Our Involvement In The War In Vietnam Has Torn Up The Geneva Accord. It Has Strengthened The Military-industrial Complex; It Has Strengthened The Forces Of Reaction In Our Nation. It Has Put Us Against The Self-determination Of A Vast Majority Of The Vietnamese People, And Put Us In The Position Of Protecting A Corrupt Regime That Is Stacked Against The Poor.
Determination
Military
War
Returning Violence For Violence Multiplies Violence, Adding Deeper Darkness To A Night Already Devoid Of Stars.
Kings
Stars
Hate
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.
Love
Inspirational
Acceptance
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.
Civil Rights
Revolution
Retreat
He Who Passively Accepts Evil Is As Much Involved In It As He Who Helps To Perpetrate It. He Who Accepts Evil Without Protesting Against It Is Really Cooperating With It.
Acceptance
Evil
Historical
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
Spiritual
Children
White
Where Evil Men Would Seek To Perpetuate An Unjust Status Quo, Good Men Must Seek To Bring Into Being A Real Order Of Justice.
Real
Men
Order
One Has A Moral Responsibility To Disobey Unjust Laws.
Inspirational
Religious
Responsibility
But I Say To You, My Friends, There Are Certain Things In Our Nation And In The World Which I Am Proud To Be Maladjusted And Which I Hope All Men Of Good-will Will Be Maladjusted Until The Good Societies Realize.
Inspirational
Men
World
Our Only Hope Today Lies In Our Ability To Recapture The Revolutionary Spirit And Go Out Into A Sometimes Hostile World Declaring Eternal Hostility To Poverty, Racism, And Militarism... We Are Now Faced With The Fact, My Friends, That Tomorrow Is Today. We Are Confronted With The Fierce Urgency Of Now.
Lying
Hero
Racism
I Have Consistently Preached That Nonviolence Demands That The Means We Use Must Be As Pure As The Ends We Seek.
Mean
Jail
Use
This Is The Unusual Thing About Nonviolence -- Nobody Is Defeated, Everybody Shares In The Victory.
Unusual Things
Victory
Defeated
In Spite Of Its Glowing Talk About The Welfare Of The Masses, Communism's Methods And Philosophy Strip Man Of His Dignity And Worth, Leaving Him As Little More Than A Depersonalized Cog In The Ever-turning Wheel Of The State.
Philosophy
Men
Glowing
We Will Never Have Peace In The World Until Men Everywhere Recognize That Ends Are Not Cut Off From Means, Because The Means Represent The Ideal In The Making, And The End In Process, And Ultimately You Can't Reach Good Ends Through Evil Means, Because The Means Represent The Seed And The End Represents The Tree.
Life
Mean
Cutting
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.
Dream
Respect
Skin Color
They Were Too God-intoxicated To Be "astronomically Intimidated." They Brought An End To Such Ancient Evils As Infanticide And Gladiatorial Contest.
Inspirational
Evil
Ancient
Curtailment Of Free Speech Is Rationalized On Grounds That A More Compelling American Tradition Forbids Criticism Of The Government When The Nation Is At War... Nothing Can Be More Destructive Of Our Fundamental Democratic Traditions Than The Vicious Effort To Silence Dissenters.
War
Government
Effort
Hatred And Bitterness Can Never Cure The Disease Of Fear; Only Love Can Do That. Hatred Paralyzes Life; Love Harmonies It. Hatred Darkens Life; Love Illuminates It.
Love Life
Hatred
Disease
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.
Inspirational
Cities
White
This Revolution Is Genuine Because It Was Born From The Same Womb That Always Gives Birth To Massive Social Upheavals - The Womb Of Intolerable Conditions And Unendurable Situations.
Giving
Upheaval
Revolution
Violence Brings Only Temporary Victories; Violence, By Creating Many More Social Problems Than It Solves, Never Brings Permanent Peace.
Creating
Victory
Violence
Whatever Affects One Directly Affects All Indirectly.
Inspirational
Kings
Destiny
The Real Problem Is That Through Our Scientific Genius We’ve Made Of The World A Neighborhood, But Through Our Moral And Spiritual Genius We’ve Failed To Make Of It A Brotherhood.
Spiritual
Real
Brotherhood
History Will Have To Record That The Greatest Tragedy Of This Period Of Social Transition Was Not The Strident Clamor Of The Bad People, But The Appalling Silence Of The Good People.
Sad
Wisdom
Bad Relationship
Agape Means Recognition Of The Fact That All Life Is Interrelated. All Humanity Is Involved In A Single Process, And All Men Are Brothers. To The Degree That I Harm My Brother, No Matter What He Is Doing To Me, To That Extent I Am Harming Myself.
Wisdom
Brother
Mean
The First Principle Of Value That We Need To Rediscover Is This: That All Reality Hinges On Moral Foundations. In Other Words, That This Is A Moral Universe, And That There Are Moral Laws Of The Universe Just As Abiding As The Physical Laws.
Inspiring
Reality
Law
A Second Way That Oppressed People Sometimes Deal With Oppression Is To Resort To Physical Violence And Corroding Hatred.
Inspirational
People
Hatred
Freedom Has Always Been An Expensive Thing. History Is Fit Testimony To The Fact That Freedom Is Rarely Gained Without Sacrifice And Self-denial.
Sacrifice
Self
Denial
The Only Time People Do Not Like Praise Is When Too Much Of It Is Going Toward Someone Else.
People
Too Much
Praise
The Christian Faith Makes It Possible For Us Nobly To Accept That Which Cannot Be Changed, And To Meet Disappointments And Sorrow With An Inner Poise, And To Absorb The Most Intense Pain Without Abandoning Our Sense Of Hope.
Christian
Pain
Disappointment
The United States Is The Largest Exporter Of Violence In The World
United States
World
Violence
Negro Leaders Sought To Negotiate With The City Fathers. But The Political Leaders Consistently Refused To Engage In Good-faith Negotiation.
Inspirational
Father
Cities
Brutality Was Imprisoned In A Lumious Glare Revealing The Naked Truth To The Whole World
Naked
Brutality
World
One Of These Days I'm Going To Put My Body Where My Mind Is.
Mind
Body
These Days
Oppressed People Cannot Remain Oppressed Forever. The Yearning For Freedom Eventually Manifests Itself.
People
Forever
Yearning
It Is Quite Easy For Me To Think Of A God Of Love Mainly Because I Grew Up In A Family Where Love Was Central And Where Lovely Relationships Were Ever Present.
Love
Thinking
Easy
My Friends, All I'm Trying To Say Is That If We Are To Go Forward Today, We've Got To Go Back And Rediscover Some Mighty Precious Values That We've Left Behind. That's The Only Way That We Would Be Able To Make Of Our World A Better World, And To Make Of This World What God Wants It To Be And The Real Purpose And Meaning Of It.
Inspiring
Real
Our World
Commit Yourself To The Noble Struggle For Human Rights. You Will Make A Greater Person Of Yourself, A Greater Nation Of Your Country And A Finer World To Live In.
Country
Struggle
Rights
Unless You Have Found Something In Life To Live For That Is More Important To You Than Your Own Life, You Will Always Be A Slave. For All Another Man Needs To Do Is Threaten To Take Your Life To Get You To Do His Bidding.
Men
Important
Needs
At The Center Of Non-violence Stands The Principle Of Love.
Love
Thought Provoking
Principles
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.
Covered Up
Evil
Slavery
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.
Education
Teacher
Teaching
It All Boils Down To This: That All Life Is Interrelated.
Life Is
The Major Problem Of Life Is Learning How To Handle The Costly Interruptions.
Problem
Life Is
Interruptions
It Is Love That Will Save Our World And Our Civilization.
Our World
Civilization
World
I Feel That Segregation Is Totally Unchristian, And That It Is Against Everything The Christian Religion Stands For.
Christian
Segregation
Unchristian
Be An Artist At Whatever You Do. Even If You Are A Street Sweeper, Be The Michelangelo Of Street Sweepers.
Self Esteem
Artist
Sweepers
No Man (sic) Has Learned To Live Until He Can Rise Above The Narrow Confines Of His Individualistic Concerns To The Broader Concerns Of All Humanity. Length Without Breadth Is Like A Self-contained Tributary Having No Outward Flow To The Ocean. Stagnant, Still And Stale, It Lacks Both Life And Freshness. In Order To Live Creatively And Meaningfully, Our Self-concern Must Be Wedded To Other Concerns.
Ocean
Men
Self
Let No Man Pull You So Low As To Hate Him.
Inspiring
Wisdom
Hate
Through Violence, You May Murder The Hater, But You Do Not Murder The Hate.
Kings
Revenge
Hate
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.
Peace
Freedom
Hate
I Say To You Today, My Friends, So Even Though We Face The Difficulties Of Today And Tomorrow, I Still Have A Dream.
Inspirational
Life
Dream
The Road To Freedom Is A Difficult, Hard Road. It Always Makes For Temporary Setbacks.
Difficult
Temporary Setbacks
Hard
A Nation Or Civilization That Continues To Produce Soft-minded Men Purchases Its Own Spiritual Death On The Installment Plan.
Motivational
Spiritual
Men
I Imagine You Already Know That I Am Much More Socialistic In My Economic Theory Than Capitalistic. And Yet I Am Not So Opposed To Capitalism That I Have Failed To See Its Relative Merits. It Started Out With A Noble And High Motive, To Block The Trade Monopolies Of Nobles, But Like Most Human Systems It Falls Victim To The Very Thing It Was Revolting Against. So Today Capitalism Has Outlived Its Usefulness. It Has Brought About A System That Takes Necessities From The Masses To Give Luxuries To The Classes.
Block
Fall
Class
Too Often An Institution Serves To Bless The Majority Opinion. Today When Too Many Move To The Rhythmic Beat Of The Status Quo, Whoever Would Be A Christian Must Be A Nonconformist.
Christian
Moving
Majority
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.
Time
Ill Will
People
As I Like To Say To The People In Montgomery: "the Tension In This City Is Not Between White People And Negro People. The Tension Is, At Bottom, Between Justice And Injustice, Between The Forces Of Light And The Forces Of Darkness.
Light
Cities
White
There Is Some Good In The Worst Of Us, And Some Evil In The Best Of Us.
Forgiveness
Worst Enemy
Evil
Understanding Quotes: Their Essence and Application

Quotes, or quotations, are powerful tools in communication, encapsulating ideas, emotions, and wisdom in concise expressions. They serve various purposes across different contexts, from academic writing to everyday conversation.

1. Defining Quotes

A quote is a repetition of someone else's statement or thoughts. It can be a direct replication of words spoken or written by another individual, often used to support arguments, provide evidence, or convey profound insights.


2. The Importance of Quotes

2.1. Enhancing Credibility

Incorporating quotes from authoritative sources can bolster the credibility of your work. By referencing experts or primary sources, you demonstrate thorough research and a solid foundation for your arguments.


2.2. Providing Evidence

Quotes serve as concrete evidence to support claims. In academic and professional writing, they validate points made, offering readers a basis to trust the information presented.


2.3. Conveying Emotions and Perspectives

Quotes can encapsulate emotions and perspectives succinctly. They allow writers to express complex feelings or viewpoints through the words of others, often more eloquently than paraphrasing.


3. Types of Quotes

3.1. Direct Quotes

Direct quotes involve copying the exact words from a source, enclosed in quotation marks. They are used when the original wording is significant or particularly well-expressed.


3.2. Indirect Quotes (Paraphrasing)

Indirect quotes restate the original message in your own words. While not enclosed in quotation marks, they still require proper attribution to the original source.


3.3. Block Quotes

Block quotes are lengthy direct quotations, formatted as a separate block of text. They are typically used for quotes exceeding a certain length, varying by citation style. For instance, in APA style, quotes longer than 40 words are formatted as block quotes.



4. Proper Usage of Quotes


4.1. Contextual Relevance

Ensure that the quote you choose is relevant to the topic and adds value to your content. Avoid inserting quotes solely for decorative purposes.


4.2. Integration into Your Writing

Seamlessly integrate quotes into your writing. Introduce them appropriately and follow up with analysis or commentary to connect them to your main points.


4.3. Attribution and Citation

Always attribute quotes to their original authors and provide proper citations according to the required style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).


5. Common Mistakes to Avoid


5.1. Overusing Quotes

Relying too heavily on quotes can overshadow your voice. Use them sparingly to support your arguments, not replace them.


5.2. Lack of Analysis

Presenting a quote without analysis or explanation can leave readers questioning its relevance. Always follow up with your interpretation or discussion.


5.3. Misquoting or Taking Out of Context

Ensure that quotes are accurate and not taken out of context, as this can mislead readers and undermine your credibility.



6. Quotes in Different Contexts


6.1. Academic Writing

In academic writing, quotes are used to support arguments, provide evidence, and engage with existing literature. Proper citation is crucial to avoid plagiarism.


6.2. Journalism

Journalists use quotes to provide firsthand accounts, add authenticity, and present multiple perspectives within a story.


6.3. Literature and Creative Writing

In literature, quotes can be used to convey character voices, themes, and stylistic elements. They enrich narratives and provide depth to storytelling.



7. Punctuation and Formatting


Understanding the correct punctuation and formatting of quotes is essential:


Quotation Marks: Always enclose direct quotes within quotation marks.


Punctuation Placement: In American English, periods and commas are placed inside quotation marks, while colons and semicolons are placed outside.


Block Quotes: For longer quotes, format them as block quotes without quotation marks, and indent the entire block.



8. Ethical Considerations


Ethical use of quotes involves accurate representation, proper attribution, and respect for intellectual property. Misuse can lead to plagiarism, which carries serious academic and professional consequences.

9. Tools for Managing Quotes


Utilize tools like citation generators and plagiarism checkers to manage quotes effectively. These tools help ensure proper formatting and originality in your writing.



Conclusion


Quotes are invaluable in enriching content, providing evidence, and conveying complex ideas succinctly. When used appropriately, they enhance the quality and credibility of your writing. Always ensure relevance, proper integration, and ethical usage to maximize their impact.


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