Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes
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Without love, there is no reason to know anyone, for love will in the end connect us to our neighbors, our children and our hearts.
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A second basic fact that characterizes nonviolence is that it does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his friendship and understanding.
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My faith in man is, at bottom, a faith in God.
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In struggling for human dignity the oppressed people of the world must not allow themselves to become bitter or indulge in hate campaigns. To retaliate with hate and bitterness would do nothing but intensify the hate in the world. Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can be done only by projecting the ethics of love to the center of our lives.
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Each one of us has the power to make others feel better or worse. Making others feel better is much more fun than making others feel worse. Making others feel better generally makes us feel better.
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Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. [...] You only need a heart full of grace.
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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.
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Many men cry Peace! Peace! but they refuse to do the things that make for peace.
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The Negro needs the white man to free him from his fears. The white man needs the Negro to free him from his guilt.
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The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?'
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In the final analysis the weakness of Black Power is its failure to see that the black man needs the white man and the white man needs the black man.
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The purpose of direct action is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.
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War is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow.
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Right defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.
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You cannot solve the problem by turning to communism, for communism is based on an ethical relativism and a metaphysical materialism that no Christian can accept.
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The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important.
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The thing that we need in the world today, is a group of men and women who will stand up for right and be opposed to wrong, wherever it is. A group of people who have come to see that some things are wrong, whether they’re never caught up with. Some things are right, whether nobody sees you doing them or not.
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To sway an audience, you must watch them as you speak.
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When we ask Negroes to abide by the law, let us also declare that the white man does not abide by law in the ghettos. Day in and day out he violates welfare laws to deprive the poor of their meager allotments; he flagrantly violates building codes and regulations; his police make a mockery of law; he violates laws on equal employment and education and the provisions of civil services. The slums are the handiwork of a vicious system of the white society; Negroes live in them, but they do not make them, any more than a prisoner makes a prison.
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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.
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Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.
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It is better to be the recipient of violence than the inflicter of it, since the latter only multiplies the existence of violence and bitterness in the universe, while the former may develop a sense of shame in the opponent, and thereby bring about a transformation and change of heart.
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Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.
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From my Christian formation've gotten my ideals and technique Gandhi action.