Background Image

...

Those Who Are Not Looking For Happiness Are The Most Likely To Find It, Because Those Who Are Searching Forget That The Surest Way To Be Happy Is To Seek Happiness For Others.

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Those Who Are Not

Martin Luther King, Jr.

...

Those Who Are Not Looking For Happiness Are The Most Likely To Find It, Because Those Who Are Searching Forget That The Surest Way To Be Happy Is To Seek Happiness For Others.

Views: 6

Topic

More From Martin Luther King, Jr.

Justice Too Long Delayed Is Justice Denied.

There Are Two Types Of Laws: There Are Just Laws And There Are Unjust Laws... What Is The Difference Between The Two?...an Unjust Law Is A Man-made Code That Is Out Of Harmony With The Moral Law.

Many White Americans Of Good Will Have Never Connected Bigotry With Economic Exploitation. They Have Deplored Prejudice But Tolerated Or Ignored Economic Injustice.

A Host Of Positive Psychological Changes Inevitably Will Result From Widespread Economic Security. The Dignity Of The Individual Will Flourish When The Decisions Concerning His Life Are In His Own Hands, When He Has The Means To Seek Self-improvement. Personal Conflicts Among Husbands, Wives And Children Will Diminish When The Unjust Measurement Of Human Worth On The Scale Of Dollars Is Eliminated.

Had It Not Been For The Ministry Of My Good Friend Dr. Billy Graham, My Work In The Civil Rights Movement Would Not Have Been As Successful As It Has Been.

Nonviolence Is An Imperative In Order To Bring About Ultimate Community.

One Has Not Only A Legal But A Moral Responsibility To Obey Just Laws. Conversely, One Has A Moral Responsibility To Disobey Unjust Laws. I Would Agree With St. Augustine That ' An Unjust Law Is No Law At All.

A Church That Has Lost Its Voice For Justice Is A Church That Has Lost Its Relevance In The World.

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.

Our Scientific Power Has Outrun Our Spiritual Power. We Have Guided Missiles And Misguided Men. Our Hope For Creative Living Lies In Our Ability To Reestablish The Spiritual Needs Of Our Lives In Personal Character And Social Justice. Without This Spiritual And Moral Reawakening We Shall Destroy Ourselves In The Misuse Of Our Own Instruments.

Never Forget That Everything Hitler Did In Germany Was Legal.

Libertarian Party

Thought Provoking

Actually, We Who Engage In Nonviolent Direct Action Are Not The Creators Of Tension. We Merely Bring To The Surface The Hidden Tension That Is Already Alive. We Bring It Out In The Open, Where It Can Be Seen And Dealt With. Like A Boil That Can Never Be Cured So Long As It Is Covered Up But Must Be Opened With An Its Ugliness To The Natural Medicines Of Air And Light, Injustice Must Be Exposed, With All The Tension Its Exposure Creates, To The Light Of Human Conscience And The Air Of National Opinion Before It Can Be Cured.

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?'

Education Must Enable A Man To Become More Efficient, To Achieve With Increasing Facility The Legitimate Goals Of His Life.

Most Of These People Will Never Make The Headlines And Their Names Will Not Appear In Who's Who. Yet When Years Have Rolled Past And When The Blazing Light Of Truth Is Focused On This Marvelous Age In Which We Live - Men And Women Will Know And Children Will Be Taught That We Have A Finer Land, A Better People, A More Noble Civilization - Because These Humble Children Of God Were Willing To Suffer For Righteousness' Sake.

Whatever Your Life's Work Is, Do It Well.

In That Dramatic Scene On Calvary's Hill Three Men Were Crucified.... All Three Were Crucified For The Same Crime-the Crime Of Extremism. Two Were Extremists For Immorality, And Thus Fell Below Their Environment. The Other, Jesus Christ, Was An Extremist For Love, Truth And Goodness, And Thereby Rose Above His Environment. Perhaps The South, The Nation And The World Are In Dire Need Of Creative Extremists.

Procrastinatio N Is Still The Thief Of Time.

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

Courage Faces Fear And Thereby Masters It. Cowardice Represses Fear And Is Thereby Mastered By It.

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.

The Truth May Hurt, But Love Helps Ease The Pain.

Love Is The Most Durable Power In The World.

Segregation Is The Adultery Of An Illicit Intercourse Between Injustice And Immorality.

A Time Comes When Silence Is Betrayal. Even When Pressed By The Demands Of Inner Truth, Men Do Not Easily Assume The Task Of Opposing Their Government's Policy, Especially In Time Of War. Nor Does The Human Spirit Move Without Great Difficulty Against All The Apathy Of Conformist Thought, Within One's Own Bosom And In The Surrounding World.

At The Heart Of All That Civilization Has Meant And Developed Is 'community' - The Mutually Cooperative And Voluntary Venture Of Man To Assume A Semblance Of Responsibility For His Brother.

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.

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 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.

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 Negroes Of America Had Taken The President, The Press And The Pulpit At Their Word When They Spoke In Broad Terms Of Freedom And Justice. But The Absence Of Brutality And Unregenerate Evil Is Not The Presence Of Justice. To Stay Murder Is Not The Same Thing As To Ordain Brotherhood.

Everybody Has The Blues. Everybody Longs For Meaning. Everybody Needs To Love And Be Loved. Everybody Needs To Clap Hands And Be Happy. Everybody Longs For Faith. In Music, Especially This Broad Category Called Jazz, There Is A Stepping-stone To All Of These.

I Must Face The Fact, As All Others In Positions Of Leadership Must Do, That America Today Is An Extremely Sick Nation, And That Something Could Well Happen To Me At Any Time. I Feel, Though, That My Cause Is So Right, So Moral, That If I Should Lose My Life, In Some Way It Would Aid The Cause.

There May Come A Time When It Will Be Possible For You To Humiliate Your Worst Enemy Or Even To Defeat Him, But In Order To Love The Enemy You Must Not Do It... The Greek Language Has Another Word [for Love]. It Calls It Agape. Agape Is More Than Romantic Love. Agape Is More Than Friendship. Agape Is Understanding, Redemptive Goodwill For All Men. Agape Is An Overflowing Love, A Spontaneous Love, Which Seeks Nothing In Return. And Theologians Would Say That It Is The Love Of God Operating In The Human Heart. When You Rise To Love On This Level You Love All Men, Not Because You Like Them, Not Because Their Ways Appeal To You, Not Because They Are Worthful To You, But You Love All Men Because God Loves Them. And You Rise To The Noble Heights Of Loving The Person Who Does The Evil Deed While Hating The Deed That The Person Does. And I Think This Is What Jesus Means When He Says, “love Your Enemies.”

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

We Were Not Unmindful Of The Difficulties Involved. So We Decided To Go Through A Process Of Self-purification.

Three Hundred Years Of Humiliation, Abuse And Deprivation Cannot Be Expected To Find Voice In A Whisper.

Cowardice Is Submissive Surrender To Circumstances.

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

He Should Sweep Streets So Well That All The Host Of Heaven And Earth Will Pause To Say, 'here Lives A Great Street-sweeper Who Did His Job Well'

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...'

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.

The Self Cannot Be Self Without Other Selves.

Wherever Schools Can Be Integrated Through The Busing Method, And Where It Won't Be Just A, A Terrible Inconvenience, I Think It Ought To Be Done.

I Would Rather Be A Man Of Conviction Than A Man Of Conformity

Are You Able To Accept Blows Without Retaliating?" And "are You Able To Endure The Ordeals Of Jail?"

You're As Good As Anybody.

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.

Before The Pilgrims Landed At Plymouth, We Were Here. Before The Pen Of Jefferson Etched Across The Pages Of History The Majestic Words Of The Declaration Of Independence, We Were Here. If The Inexpressible Cruelties Of Slavery Could Not Stop Us, The Opposition We Now Face Will Surely Fail. We Will Win Our Freedom Because The Sacred Heritage Of Our Nation And The Eternal Will Of God Are Embodied In Our Echoing Demands.

From My Christian Formation've Gotten My Ideals And Technique Gandhi Action

Forgiveness Does Not Mean Ignoring What Has Been Done Or Putting A False Label On An Evil Act. It Means, Rather, That The Evil Act No Longer Remains As A Barrier To The Relationship. Forgiveness Is A Catalyst Creating The Atmosphere Necessary For A Fresh Start And A New Beginning.

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

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.

When The Architects Of Our Republic Wrote The Magnificent Words Of The Constitution And The Declaration Of Independence, They Were Signing A Promissory Note To Which Every American Was To Fall Heir.

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.

An Eye For An Eye Leaves Everybody Blind.

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

It's Very Easy For One Talking About Violence And Hatred For The White Man To Appeal To [negro From Ghetto]. I Have Never Thought Of This, But I Think This Is Quite True, That If, Even If You Talk To Them About Nonviolence From A Tactical Point Of View, They Can't Quite See It Because They Don't Even Know They're Outnumbered.

Power Is The Ability To Achieve Purpose.

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

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

When Evil Men Plot, Good Men Must Plan. When Evil Men Burn And Bomb, Good Men Must Build And Bind. When Evil Men Shout Ugly Words Of Hatred, Good Men Must Commit Themselves To The Glories Of Love.

The Strong Man Holds In A Living Blend Strongly Marked Opposites.

He Who Is Devoid Of The Power To Forgive Is Devoid Of The Power To Love.

History Has Thrust Something Upon Me From Which I Cannot Turn Away.

Our Problem Is Not To Be Rid Of Fear But Rather To Harness And Master It.

I Have A Dream That One Day On The Red Hills Of Georgia, Sons Of Former Slaves And Sons Of Former Slave-owners Will Be Able To Sit Down Together At The Table Of Brotherhood. I Have A Dream That One Day, Even The State Of Mississippi, A State Sweltering With The Heat Of Injustice, Sweltering With The Heat Of Oppression, Will Be Transformed Into A Oasis Of Freedom And Justice. I Have A Dream My Four Little Children Will One Day Live In A Nation Where They Will Not Be Judged By The Color Of Their Skin But By Content Of Their Character. I Have A Dream Today!

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

Let Us Be Practical And Ask The Question: How Do We Love Our Enemies?

Love Your Enemies

And See Ominous Clouds Of Inferiority Beginning To Form In Her Little Mental Sky.

We Are Called Upon To Help The Discouraged Beggars In Life's Marketplace. But One Day We Must Come To See That An Edifice Which Produces Beggars Needs Restructuring.

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

With The Tough Mind, There Must Also Be A Tender Heart.

Like A Boil That Must Be Opened With All Its Ugliness To The Natural Medicines Of Air And Light, Injustice Must Be Exposed To The Light Of Human Conscience Before It Can Be Cured.

I Have Consistently Preached That Nonviolence Demands That The Means We Use Must Be As Pure As The Ends We Seek.

Violence Brings Only Temporary Victories; Violence, By Creating Many More Social Problems Than It Solves, Never Brings Permanent Peace.

Gandhi Was Inevitable. If Humanity Is To Progress, Gandhi Is Inescapable. He Lived, Thought And Acted, Inspired By The Vision Of Humanity Evolving Toward A World Of Peace And Harmony. We May Ignore Gandhi At Our Own Risk.

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

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.

We Shall Match Your Capacity To Inflict Suffering By Our Capacity To Endure Suffering. We Will Meet Your Physical Force With Soul Force. Do To Us What You Will And We Will Still Love You....bomb Our Homes And Threaten Our Children, And, As Difficult As It Is, We Will Still Love You.

The Curse Of Poverty Has No Justification In Our Age...the Time Has Come For Us To Civilize Ourselves By The Total, Direct And Immediate Abolition Of Poverty.

I Know That Love Is Ultimately The Only Answer To Mankind's Problems. And I'm Going To Talk About It Everywhere I Go. I Know It Isn't Popular To Talk About It In Some Circles Today. I'm Not Talking About Emotional Bosh When I Talk About Love, I'm Talking About A Strong, Demanding Love.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Set Yourself Earnestly To Discover What You Are Made To Do, And Then Give Yourself Passionately To The Doing Of It.

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.

This Hour In History Needs A Dedicated Circle Of Transformed Nonconformists. Our Planet Teeters On The Brink Of Annihilation; Dangerous Passions Of Pride, Hatred, And Selfishness Are Enthroned In Our Lives; And Men Do Reverence Before False Gods Of Nationalism And Materialism. The Saving Of Our World From Pending Doom Will Come, Not Through The Complacent Adjustment Of The Conforming Majority, But Through The Creative Maladjustment Of A Nonconforming Minority.

The Belief That God Will Do Everything For Man Is As Untenable As The Belief That Man Can Do Everything For Himself. It, Too, Is Based On A Lack Of Faith. We Must Learn That To Expect God To Do Everything While We Do Nothing Is Not Faith But Superstition.

A Religion True To Its Nature Must Also Be Concerned About Man's Social Conditions....a Ny Religion That Professes To Be Concerned With The Souls Of Men And Is Not Concerned With The Slums That Damn Them, The Economic Conditions That Strangle Them, And The Social Conditions That Cripple Them Is A Dry-as-dust Religion.

It Is Appalling That The Most Segregated Hour Of Christian America Is Eleven O'clock On Sunday Morning.

Unity Has Never Meant Uniformity.

Another Reason Why We Must Love Our Enemies Is That Hate Scars The Soul And Distorts The Personality.

Unearned Suffering Is Redemptive.

For Years Now I Have Heard The Word "wait." It Rings In The Ear Of Every Negro With A Piercing Familiarity. This "wait" Has Almost Always Meant "never."

They Asked If Our Own Nation Wasn't Using Massive Doses Of Violence To Solve Its Problems, To Bring About The Changes It Wanted. Their Questions Hit Home, And I Knew That I Could Never Again Raise My Voice Against The Violence Of The Oppressed In The Ghettos Without Having First Spoken Clearly To The Greatest Purveyor Of Violence In The World Today-my Own Government. For The Sake Of Those Boys, For The Sake Of This Government, For The Sake Of Hundreds Of Thousands Trembling Under Our Violence, I Cannot Be Silent.

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.

I Am What I Am Because Of Who We All Are.

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.

Let's Build Bridges, Not Walls.

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.

Let Us Therefore Continue Our Triumphal March To The Realization Of The American Dream... For All Of Us Today, The Battle Is In Our Hands... The Road Ahead Is Not Altogether A Smooth One. There Are No Broad Highways That Lead Us Easily And Inevitably To Quick Solutions... We Are Still In For The Season Of Suffering... How Long? Not Long. Because No Lie Can Live Forever... Our God Is Marching On.

But There Is Another Way. And That Is To Organize Mass Non-violent Resistance Based On The Principle Of Love. It Seems To Me That This Is The Only Way As Our Eyes Look To The Future. As We Look Out Across The Years And Across The Generations, Let Us Develop And Move Right Here. We Must Discover The Power Of Love, The Power, The Redemptive Power Of Love. And When We Discover That We Will Be Able To Make Of This Old World A New World. We Will Be Able To Make Men Better. Love Is The Only Way.

But By All Means, Keep Moving.

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

I Knew That I Could Never Again Raise My Voice Against The Violence Of The Oppressed In The Ghettos Without Having First Spoken Clearly To The Greatest Purveyor Of Violence In The World Today - My Own Government.... There Is Something Strangely Inconsistent About A Nation And A Press That Would Praise You When You Say, 'be Nonviolent Toward Jim Clark,' But Will Curse And Damn You When You Say, 'be Nonviolent Toward Little Brown Vietnamese Children!' There Is Something Wrong With That Press.

Love Is The Supreme Unifying Principle Of Life.

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.

History Is The Long And Tragic Story Of The Fact That Privileged Groups Seldom Give Up Their Privileges Voluntarily.

Personalism's Insistence That Only Personality-finite And Infinite-is Ultimately Real Strengthened Me In Two Convictions: It Gave Me Metaphysical And Philosophical Grounding For The Idea Of A Personal God, And It Gave Me A Metaphysical Basis For The Dignity And Worth Of All Human Personality.

Nothing Pains Some People More Than Having To Think

In The Current Struggle, There Is One Positive Course Of Action. There Is No Alternative, For The Alternative Would Connote A Rear March.

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.

Without Hard Work, Time Itself Becomes An Ally Of The Primitive Forces Of Social Stagnation. So We Must Help Time And Realize That The Time Is Always Ripe To Do Right.

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.

Seeing Is Not Always Believing.

Like Anybody, I Would Like To Have A Long Life. Longevity Has Its Place. But I'm Not Concerned About That Now. I Just Want To Do God's Will.

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

We Know Nothing About Africa, Although Our Roots Are There In Terms Of Our Forbearers. But I Mean As Far As The Average Negro Today, He Knows Nothing About Africa. And I Think He's Got To Face The Fact That He Is An American, His Culture Is Basically American, And One Becomes Adjusted To This When He Realizes What, What He Is.

In A Real Sense Faith Is Total Surrender To God .

Love Is Creative, Understanding Goodwill For All Men. It Is The Refusal To Defeat Any Individual.

Whatever Effects One Directly, Effects All Indirectly.

So Long As I Do Not Firmly And Irrevocably Possess The Right To Vote I Do Not Possess Myself. I Cannot Make Up My Mind - It Is Made Up For Me. I Cannot Live As A Democratic Citizen, Observing The Laws I Have Helped To Enact - I Can Only Submit To The Edict Of Others.

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

Nonviolence Is A Powerful As Well As A Just Weapon. If You Confront A Man Who Has Long Been Cruelly Misusing You, And Say, "punish Me, If You Will; I Do Not Deserve It, But I Will Accept It, So That The World Will Know I Am Right And You Are Wrong," Then You Wield A Powerful And A Just Weapon. This Man, Your Oppressor, Is Automatically Morally Defeated, And If He Has Any Conscience, He Is Ashamed.

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.

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.

If You Will Protest Courageously, And Yet With Dignity And Christian Love, When The History Books Are Written In Future Generations, The Historians Will Have To Pause And Say, "there Lived A Great People-a Black People-who Injected New Meaning And Dignity Into The Veins Of Civilization.

Means We Use Must Be As Pure As The Ends We Seek.

A Man Dies When He Refuses To Stand Up For That Which Is Right. A Man Dies When He Refuses To Stand Up For Justice. A Man Dies When He Refuses To Take A Stand For That Which Is True.

Only In The Darkness Can You See The Stars.

We Are Now Faced With The Fact That Tomorrow Is Today. We Are Confronted With The Fierce Urgency Of Now. In This Unfolding Conundrum Of Life And History, There "is" Such A Thing As Being Too Late. This Is No Time For Apathy Or Complacency. This Is A Time For Vigorous And Postive Action.

Like Paul, I Must Constantly Respond To The Macedonian Call For Aid.

We In The West Must Bear In Mind That The Poor Countries Are Poor Primarily Because We Have Exploited Them Through Political Or Economic Colonialism.

[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.

Through Our Scientific And Technological Genius We've Made Of This World A Neighborhood. And Now Through Our Moral And Ethical Commitment We Must Make Of It A Brotherhood. We Must All Learn To Live Together As Brothers-or We Will All Perish Together As Fools.

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.

The Spirit Of Lincoln Still Lives; That Spirit Born Of The Teachings Of The Nazarene, Who Promised Mercy To The Merciful, Who Lifted The Lowly, Strengthened The Weak, Ate With Publicans, And Made The Captives Free. In The Light Of This Divine Example, The Doctrines Of Demagogues Shiver In Their Chaff.

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.

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.

Our Nation Was Born In Genocide When It Embraced The Doctrine That The Original American, The Indian, Was An Inferior Race. ... We Are Perhaps The Only Nation Which Tried As A Matter Of National Policy To Wipe Out Its Indigenous Population. Moreover, We Elevated That Tragic Experience Into A Noble Crusade. Indeed, Even Today We Have Not Permitted Ourselves To Reject Or To Feel Remorse For This Shameful Episode.

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.

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

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

My Obligation Is To Do The Right Thing. The Rest Is In God's Hands.

We Need Not Join The Mad Rush To Purchase An Earthly Fallout Shelter. God Is Our Eternal Fallout Shelter. From Strength To Love, 1963

Let Us Say Boldly, That If The Total Slum Violations Of Law By The White Man Over The Years Were Calculated And Compared With The Lawbreaking Of A Few Days Of Riots, The Hardened Criminal Would Be The White Man.

Five Score Years Ago, A Great American, In Whose Symbolic Shadow We Stand Today Signed The Emancipation Proclamation. This Momentous Decree Came As A Great Beacon Light Of Hope To Millions Of Negro Slaves Who Had Been Seared In The Flames Of Withering Injustice. It Came As A Joyous Daybreak To End The Long Night Of Their Captivity. But One Hundred Years Later, We Must Face The Tragic Fact That The Negro Is Still Not Free.

Make Your Way To Death Row And Speak With The Tragic Victims Of Criminality. As They Prepare To Make Their Pathetic Walk To The Electric Chair, Their Hopeless Cry Is That Society Will Not Forgive. Capital Punishment Is Society's Final Assertion That It Will Not Forgive.

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.

Make A Career Of Humanity. Commit Yourself To The Struggle For Equal Rights.

The Negro Cannot Win The Respect Of His Oppressor By Acquiescing; He Merely Increases The Oppressor's Arrogance And Contempt.

I Too Am Compelled To Carry The Gospel Of Freedom Beyond My Particular Hometown.

It's Not How Long A Man Lives, But How Well He Uses The Time Allotted Him.

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.

A True Revolution Of Values Will Soon Cause Us To Question The Fairness And Justice Of Many Of Our Present Policies... True Compassion Is More Than Flinging A Coin To A Beggar. A True Revolution Of Values Will Soon Look On Uneasily Upon The Glaring Contrast Of Poverty And Wealth With Righteous Indignation.

Darkness Is Only Driven Out With Light, Not More Darkness.

Unarmed Love Is The Most Powerful Force In All The World.

Everybody Can Be Great...because Anybody Can Serve. You Don't Have To Have A College Degree To Serve.

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.

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

In A Real Sense All Life Is Inter-related. All Men Are Caught In An Inescapable Network Of Mutuality, Tied In A Single Garment Of Destiny. Whatever Affects One Directly, Affects All Indirectly. I Can Never Be What I Ought To Be Until You Are What You Ought To Be, And You Can Never Be What You Ought To Be Until I Am What I Ought To Be... This Is The Inter-related Structure Of Reality.

The Poor Never Get The Job Done They Are Sleepy.

White Americans Must Be Made To Understand The Basic Motives Underlying Negro Demonstrations. Many Pent-up Resentments And Latent Frustrations Are Boiling Inside The Negro, And He Must Release Them. It Is Not A Threat But A Fact Of History That If An Oppressed People's Pent-up Emotions Are Not Nonviolently Released, They Will Be Violently Released.

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!"

So I Have Tried To Make It Clear That It Is Wrong To Use Immoral Means To Attain Moral Ends. But Now I Must Affirm That It Is Just As Wrong, Or Even More So, To Use Moral Means To Preserve Immoral Ends.

From The Prodigious Hilltops Of New Hampshire, Let Freedom Ring. From The Mighty Mountains Of New York, Let Freedom Ring. From The Heightening Alleghenies Of Pennsylvania, Let Freedom Ring. But Not Only That: Let Freedom Ring From Every Hill And Molehill Of Mississippi.

Find A Voice In A Whisper.

Hatred Paralyzes Life; Love Releases It. Hatred Confuses Life; Love Harmonizes It. Hatred Darkens Life; Love Illuminates It.

The Law Of "an Eye For An Eye" Will Eventually Leave Everyone Blind.

Jazz Speaks For Life. The Blues Tell The Story Of Life's Difficulties.

The Use Of Violence In Our Struggle Would Be Both Impractical And Immoral. To Meet Hate With Retaliatory Hate Would Do Nothing But Intensify The Existence Of Evil In The Universe. Hate Begets Hate; Violence Begets Violence; Toughness Begets A Greater Toughness. We Must Meet The Forces Of Hate With The Power Of Love; We Must Meet Physical Force With Soul Force. Our Aim Must Never Be To Defeat Or Humiliate The White Man, But To Win His Friendship And Understanding.

The Negro Is The Child Of Two Cultures - Africa And America. The Problem Is That In The Search For Wholeness All Too Many Negroes Seek To Embrace Only One Side Of Their Natures.

Our Nettlesome Task Is To Discover How To Organize Our Strength Into Compelling Power.

And You Know, It's Possible That The Priest And The Levite Looked Over That Man On The Ground And Wondered If The Robbers Were Still Around. Or It's Possible That They Felt That The Man On The Ground Was Merely Faking. And He Was Acting Like He Had Been Robbed And Hurt, In Order To Seize Them Over There, Lure Them There For Quick And Easy Seizure. And So The First Question That The Levite Asked Was, "if I Stop To Help This Man, What Will Happen To Me?" But Then The Good Samaritan Came By. And He Reversed The Question: "if I Do Not Stop To Help This Man, What Will Happen To Him?

We Are All Tied Together In A Single Garment Of Destiny . . . I Can Never Be What I Ought To Be Until You Are Allowed To Be What You Ought To Be.

We Cannot Walk Alone. And As We Walk, We Must Make The Pledge That We Shall Always March Ahead. We Cannot Turn Back.

I Have A Dream Speech

Ultimately A Great Nation Is A Compassionate Nation.

No Work Is Insignificant. All Labor That Uplifts Humanity Has Dignity

Dignity Of Work

History Will Have To Recordthat The Greatest Tragedy Of This Period Of Social Transitionwas Not The Vitriolic Words And The Violent Actions Of The Bad Peoplebut The Appalling Silence And Indifference Of The Good.our Generation Will Have To Repent Notonly For The Words And Actions Of The Children Of Darknessbut Also For The Fears And Apathy Of Thechildren Of Light.

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

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

I Cannot Forget That The Nobel Prize For Peace Was Also A Commission - A Commission To Work Harder Than I Had Ever Worked Before For "the Brotherhood Of Man".

Brotherhood Of Man

All Too Many Of Those Who Live In Affluent America Ignore Those Who Exist In Poor America; In Doing So, The Affluent Americans Will Eventually Have To Face Themselves With The Question That Eichman Chose To Ignore: How Responsible Am I For The Well-being Of My Fellows?

There Is Nothing More Majestic Than The Determined Courage Of Individuals Willing To Suffer And Sacrifice For Their Freedom And Dignity.

To Deny A Man A Job Is To Say That A Man Has No Right To Exist.

I Am Cognizant Of The Interrelatedness Of All Communities And States. I Cannot Sit Idly By In Atlanta And Not Be Concerned About What Happens In Birmingham. Injustice Anywhere Is A Threat To Justice Everywhere. We Are Caught In An Inescapable Network Of Mutuality, Tied In A Single Garment Of Destiny. Whatever Affects One Directly, Affects All Indirectly. Never Again Can We Afford To Live With The Narrow, Provincial "outside Agitator" Idea.

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.

What I'm Saying To You This Morning Is That Communism Forgets That Life Is Individual. Capitalism Forgets That Life Is Social, And The Kingdom Of Brotherhood Is Found Neither In The Thesis Of Communism Nor The Antithesis Of Capitalism But In A Higher Synthesis.

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

Be Concerned About Your Brother...eithe R We Go Up Together, Or We Go Down Together.

We Must Discover The Power Of Love, The Power, The Redemptive Power Of Love. And When We Discover That We Will Be Able To Make Of This Old World A New World. We Will Be Able To Make Men Better. Love Is The Only Way.

You Have To Keep Moving Forward

Keep Moving Forward

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

There Is Nothing New About Poverty. What Is New, However, Is That We Have The Resources To Get Rid Of It.

Evil Must Be Attacked By. . . The Day To Day Assault Of The Battering Rams Of Justice.

Discrimination Is A Hellhound That Gnaws At Negroes In Every Waking Moment Of Their Lives To Remind Them That The Lie Of Their Inferiority Is Accepted As Truth In The Society Dominating Them.

Trending Author

David Hasselhoff

Jesse Eisenberg

Leonard Peltier

Cassandra Clare

Category