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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.

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

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True Compassion Is More

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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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.

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

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

We Must Build Dikes Of Courage To Hold Back The Flood Of Fear.

You Can't Talk About Solving The Economic Problem Of The Negro Without Talking About Billions Of Dollars. You Can't Talk About Ending The Slums Without First Saying Profit Must Be Taken Out Of The Slums. You're Really Tampering And Getting On Dangerous Ground Because You Are Messing With Folk Then. You Are Messing With Captains Of Industry. Now This Means That We Are Treading In Difficult Water, Because It Really Means That We Are Saying That Something Is Wrong With Capitalism.

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The Time Is Always Right To Do What Is Right.

Don't Allow Anybody To Make You Feel That You're Nobody.

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Quietly Endure, Silently Suffer And Patiently Wait.

Babies, We Are Told, Are The Latest News From Heaven.

Freedom Only Comes Through Persistent Revolt, Through Persistent Agitation, Through Persistently Rising Up Against The System Of Evil.

Injustice And Corruption Will Never Be Transformed By Keeping Them Hidden, But Only By Bringing Them Out Into The Light And Confronting Them With The Power Of Love.

These Are The Times For Real Choices And Not False Ones. We Are At The Moment When Our Lives Must Be Placed On The Line If Our Nation Is To Survive Its Own Folly. Every Man Of Humane Convictions Must Decide On The Protest That Best Suits His Convictions, But We Must All Protest.

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

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Nonviolence Is A Powerful And Just Weapon. Which Cuts Without Wounding And Ennobles The Man Who Wields It. It Is A Sword That Heals.

I Am Disappointed With America. And There Can Be No Great Disappointment Where There Is Not Great Love. I Am Disappointed With Our Failure To Deal Positively And Forthrightly With The Triple Evils Of Racism, Economic Exploitation, And Militarism. We Are Presently Moving Down A Dead-end Road That Can Lead To National Disaster. America Has Strayed To The Far Country Of Racism And Militarism.

I Refuse To Accept The View . . . That The Bright Daybreak Of Peace And Brotherhood Can Never Become A Reality.

Unconditional Love

Stand Up For Justice, Stand Up For Truth; And God Will Be At Your Side Forever.

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Communism Will Never Be Defeated By Atomic Bombs. Our Greatest Defense Against Communism Is To Take Offensive Action On Behalf Of Justice And Righteousness. We Must Seek To Remove Conditions Of Poverty, Injustice, And Racial Discrimination.

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

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It Is Not Enough For Me To Stand Before You Tonight And Condemn Riots. It Would Be Morally Irresponsible For Me To Do That Without, At The Same Time, Condemning The Contingent, Intolerable Conditions That Exist In Our Society. These Conditions Are The Things That Cause Individuals To Feel That They Have No Other Alternative Than To Engage In Violent Rebellions To Get Attention. And I Must Say Tonight That A Riot Is The Language Of The Unheard.

The Moral Arc Of The Universe Bends At The Elbow Of Justice.

Education Without Social Action Is A One-sided Value Because It Has No True Power Potential.

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.

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Agape Is Something Of The Understanding, Creative, Redemptive Goodwill For All Men. It Is A Love That Seeks Nothing In Return. It Is An Overflowing Love; It's What Theologians Would Call The Love Of God Working In The Lives Of Men. And When You Rise To Love On This Level, You Begin To Love Men, Not Because They Are Likeable, But Because God Loves Them.

We Must Move Forward In The Days Ahead With Audacious Faith. The Moral Arc Of The Universe Is Long But It Bends Toward Justice.

Oh, The Worst Of All Tragedies Is Not To Die Young, But To Live Until I Am Seventy Five And Yet Not Ever Truly To Have Lived.

Violence Multiplies Violence.

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.

Injustice Anywhere Is A Threat To Justice Everywhere. We Are Caught In An Inescapable Network Of Mutuality, Tied In A Single Garment Of Destiny.

We Must Come To See That The End We Seek Is A Society At Peace With Itself, A Society That Can Live With Its Conscience.

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

Every Crisis Has Both Its Dangers And Its Opportunities. Each Can Spell Either Salvation Or Doom.

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 Am Indebted To My Wife Coretta, Without Whose Love, Sacrifices, And Loyalty Neither Life Nor Work Would Bring Fulfillment. She Has Given Me Words Of Consolation When I Needed Them And A Well-ordered Home Where #christian Love Is A Reality.

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.

There's Something About Love That Builds Up And Is Creative. There Is Something About Hate That Tears Down And Is Destructive. So Love Your Enemies.

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

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

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

We Have Genuflected Before The God Of Science Only To Find That It Has Given Us The Atomic Bomb, Producing Fears And Anxieties That Science Can Never Mitigate.

Capital Punishment Is Against The Best Judgment Of Modern Criminology And, Above All, Against The Highest Expression Of Love In The Nature Of God.

As We Have Seen, The First Public Expression Of Disenchantment With Nonviolence Arose Around The Question Of 'self-defense.' In A Sense This Is A False Issue, For The Right To Defend One's Home And One's Person When Attacked Has Been Guaranteed Through The Ages By Common Law.

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

I Am Not Interested In Power For Power's Sake, But I'm Interested In Power That Is Moral, That Is Right And That Is Good.

If I Knew That The World Ends Tomorrow, I, Even Today, Plant A Tree

Love Even For Enemies Is The Key To The Solution Of The Problems Of Our World.

We Must Work Passionately And Unrelentingly For The Goal Of Freedom, But We Must Be Sure That Our Hands Are Clean In The Struggle. We Must Never Struggle With Falsehood, Hate, Or Malice. We Must Never Become Bitter.

Forgiveness Is Not An Occasional Act. It Is A Permanent Attitude. That Which I Was Not But Could Have Been. That Which I Would Have Done But Did Not Do. Can I Find The Fortitude To Remember In Truth,to Understand, To Submit, To Forgive And To Be Free To Move On In Time?

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

I'll Tell You, I've Seen The Lightning Flash. I've Heard The Thunder Roll. I Felt Sin-breakers Dashing, Trying To Conquer My Soul. But I Heard The Voice Of Jesus Saying Still To Fight On.

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?'

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

Riots Are The Voices Of The Unheard.

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?

If I Sought To Answer All Of The Criticisms That Cross My Desk, My Secretaries Would Be Engaged In Little Else In The Course Of The Day, And I Would Have No Time For Constructive Work.

I’ve Been To The Mountaintop

The Richer We Have Become Materially, The Poorer We Become Morally And Spiritually. We Have Learned To Fly In The Air Like Birds And Swim In The Sea Like Fish, But We Have Not Learned The Simple Art Of Living Together As Brothers.

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

Darkness Cannot Drive Out Darkness; Only Light Can Do That. Hate Cannot Drive Out Hate; Only Love Can Do That.

We Must Pursue Peaceful End Through Peaceful Means.

The Silence Of The Good People Is More Dangerous Than The Brutality Of The Bad People

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.

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.

If I Wish To Compose Or Write Or Pray Or Preach Well, I Must Be Angry. Then All The Blood In My Veins Is Stirred, And My Understanding Is Sharpened.

Be The Best Of Whatever You Are.

A Final Victory Is An Accumulation Of Many Short-term Encounters. To Lightly Dismiss A Success Because It Does Not Usher In A Complete Order Of Justice Is To Fail To Comprehend The Process Of Achieving Full Victory.

An Individual Who Breaks A Law That Conscience Tells Him Is Unjust, And Who Willingly Accepts The Penalty Of Imprisonment In Order To Arouse The Conscience Of The Community Over Its Injustice, Is In Reality Expressing The Highest Respect For The Law.

There Is No Deficit In Human Resources; The Deficit Is In Human Will.

Jazz Speaks For Life. The Blues Tell The Story Of Life's Difficulties, And If You Think For A Moment, You Will Realize That They Take The Hardest Realities Of Life And Put Them Into Music, Only To Come Out With Some New Hope Or Sense Of Triumph.

A Man Who Has Nothing He Is Willing To Die For Has Nothing Worth Living For

America Must Begin The Struggle For Democracy At Home. The Advocacy Of Free Elections In Europe By American Officials Is Hypocrisy When Free Elections Are Not Held In Great Sections Of America.

I Just Want To Do God's Will. And He's Allowed Me To Go To The Mountain. And I've Looked Over, And I've Seen The Promised Land! I May Not Get There With You, But I Want You To Know Tonight That We As A People Will Get To The Promised Land.

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.

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

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.

My Faith In Man Is, At Bottom, A Faith In God.

The Question Is No Longer Between Violence And Non-violence It Is Between Non-violence And Non-existence.

Violence Is Anything That Denies Human Integrity, And Leads To Hopelessness And Helplessness.

If Your Opponent Has A Conscience, Then Follow Gandhi And Nonviolence. But If Your Enemy Has No Conscience Like Hitler, Then Follow Bonhoeffer.

Be The Peace You Wish To See In The World!

I Have A Dream That One Day Even The State Of Mississippi, A Desert State, Sweltering With The Heat Of Injustice And Oppression, Will Be Transformed Into An Oasis Of Freedom And Justice.

To Dislocate The Functioning Of A City Without Destroying It Can Be More Effective Than A Riot Because It Can Be Longer-lasting, Costly To The Society But Not Wantonly Destructive, Moreover, It Is More Difficult For Government To Quell It By Superior Force.

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

The Intellectual And Moral Satisfaction That I Failed To Gain From The Utilitarianism Of Bentham And Mill, The Revolutionary Methods Of Marx And Lenin, The Social Contract Theory Of Hobbes, The "back To Nature" Optimism Of Rousseau, And The Superman Philosophy Of Nietzsche, I Found In The Nonviolent Resistance Philosophy Of Gandhi. I Came To Feel That This Was The Only Morally And Practically Sound Method Open To Oppressed People In Their Struggle For Freedom.

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

When Evil Men Burn And Bomb, Good Men Must Build And Bind.

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

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

[e]very Human Life Is A Reflection Of Divinity, And... Every Act Of Injustice Mars And Defaces The Image Of God In Man.

I Was Much More Afraid In Montgomery When I Had A Gun In My House. When I Decided That I Couldn’t Keep A Gun, I Came Face-to-face With The Question Of Death And I Dealt With It. From That Point On, I No Longer Needed A Gun Nor Have I Been Afraid. Had We Become Distracted By The Question Of My Safety We Would Have Lost The Moral Offensive And Sunk To The Level Of Our Oppressors.

We Ain't Goin' Study War No More.

[i]t Must Be Emphasized That Nonviolent Resistance Is Not A Method For Cowards; It Does Resist. If One Uses This Method Because He Is Afraid Or Merely Because He Lacks The Instruments Of Violence, He Is Not Truly Nonviolent. This Is Why Gandhi Often Said That If Cowardice Is The Only Alternative To Violence, It Is Better To Fight.

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.

The Potential Beauty Of Human Life Is Constantly Made Ugly By Man's Ever-recurring Song Of Retaliation.

You Cannot Defect Form An Insight. You Cannot Unsee What You Have Seen.

I Am In Birmingham Because Injustice Is Here. Just As The Eighth Century Prophets Left Their Little Villages And Carried Their "thus Saith The Lord" Far Beyond The Boundaries Of Their Home Towns; And Just As The Apostle Paul Left His Little Village Of Tarsus And Carried The Gospel Of Jesus Christ To Practically Every Hamlet And City Of The Graeco-roman World, I Too Am Compelled To Carry The Gospel Of Freedom Beyond My Particular Home Town. Like Paul, I Must Constantly Respond To The Macedonian Call For Aid.

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.

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