Your favorite MLK quote

[usregimechange]

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." ~ Martin Luther King

[IndyOp]

1. "...I can hear God saying to America, "You are too arrogant."

"Don't let anybody make you think that God chose America as his divine messianic force to be a sort of policeman for the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with judgment and it seems that I can hear God saying to America, 'You are too arrogant. If you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power, and I will place it in the hands of a nation that doesn't even know my name.'"

Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta in 1967

[Marleyb]

18. love that one!

[Blue_Roses]

25. Wow

just wow!:applause:

What an awesome man.

[Evergreen Emerald]

2. "Our lives begin to end...

...the day we become silent about things that matter."

[astonamous]

3. I was going to say that one, but this is another...

"We Are All God's Children". It says it all... doesn't matter what religion you believe or even if you don't, we are all the same. Each one of us is a miracle and we should all treat each other that way.

[shenmue]

4. "Tell them...

I am tired of marching for what should have been mine from birth."

:patriot:

:loveya:

[H2O Man]

5. "I am convinced

that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a 'thing-oriented' society to a 'person-oriented' society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."
-- "A Time to Break Silence (Beyond Vietnam)"; April 4, 1967

[Marleyb]

20. A true social revolutionary

"A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. 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 that flinging a coin to a beggar"

I love his whole vietnam speech, expecially this version set to Peter Gabriel's passion- it is really powerful.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x144376

[H2O Man]

23. I think it was

the greatest American speech. And I recognize that there are many, many great presentations worthy of serious consideration.

[IndyOp]

30. Marleyb - Have you heard/seen this animation by Blumrich?

I just followed your link and listened (am listening again now) to a portion of the Vietnam speech - is that a portion of the speech he gave at Riverside Church on 4/4/67?

This animation from Eric Blumrich contains the quote I posted above --
< http://www.ericblumrich.com/mlk2005.html >

[gademocrat7]

6. "Free at last, thank God Almighty we are free at last."

[meganmonkey]

7. Right now it's the one in my sig line

But it can change with my mood :)

[redstateblues]

8. "I have been to the mountain top, God has allowed me to see the

promised land" he said that the day before he was assasinated.

[Eric J in MN]

9. Guaranteed Income

http://www.moveleft.com/moveleft_essay_2005_01_20_progressive_person_of_the_week_martin_luther_king_supported_guaranteed_income.asp

I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective -- the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.

Earlier in this century this proposal would have been greeted with ridicule and denunciation as destructive of initiative and responsibility. At that time economic status was considered the measure of the individual's abilities and talents. In the simplistic thinking of that day the absence of worldly goods indicated a want of industrious habits and moral fiber.

We have come a long way in our understanding of human motivation and of the blind operation of our economic system. Now we realize that dislocations in the market operation of our economy and the prevalence of discrimination thrust people into idleness and bind them in constant or frequent unemployment against their will. The poor are less often dismissed from our conscience today by being branded as inferior and incompetent. We also know that no matter how dynamically the economy develops and expands it does not eliminate all poverty.

[JohnLocke]

10. "Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative"

"But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that an men are created equal ..." So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we viii be. We be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremist for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that 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, Jeans 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."

--"Letter from a Birmingham Jail"

http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

[BlueIris]

11. "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

I have that on a keychain.

[usregimechange]

12. I have it framed in my office.

[mikelewis]

13. "I don't know about you, but I ain't gonna study war, no more."

Thus my tag-line.

[ohio_liberal]

43. That's my favorite MLK Jr quote too

Thank for posting it :hi:

[underseasurveyor]

14. "Success, recognition, and conformity

are the bywords of the modern world where everyone seems to crave the anesthetizing security of being identified with the majority." MLK

[Bluerthanblue]

15. forgive..

"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. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

[DesertRat]

16. The one in my signature line

[Autumn]

17. 'We've got to stay together

and maintain unity. You know, whenever Pharaoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery in Egypt, he had a favorite, favorite formula for doing it. What was that? He kept the slaves fighting among themselves. But whenever the slaves get together, something happens in Pharaoh's court, and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together, that's the beginning of getting out of slavery. Now let us maintain unity. " It fits what we are going through today.

[Lancer]

19. "Injustice anywhere…" sums it all up for me. n/t

[Marleyb]

21. "Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy"

"NOW IS THE TIME!"

[SoKalKyle]

22. I have Two on Violence

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral,
begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.
Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
Through violence you may murder the liar,
but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.
Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate.
In fact, violence merely increases hate....
Returning violence for violence multiples violence,
adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
--Martin Luther King Jr.


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.
- Martin Luther King Jr

[spuddonna]

51. Thank you for these... It's been awhile since I'd read them...

And it's a good refresher course in love and the power of truth... :)

[marions ghost]

24. MLK

"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 reality. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."

[davekriss]

26. MLKjr, a great great man

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetuate it.
-- Martin Luther King Jr

Cowardice asks the question - is it safe? Expediency asks the question - is it politic?
Vanity asks the question - is it popular? But conscience asks the question - is it right?
And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is right.
-- Martin Luther King Jr

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor. It must be demanded by the oppressed.
-- Martin Luther King Jr


What a world this would be if MLK, JFK, and RFK still walked the streets and hallways of America?

[TheBaldyMan]

27. the whole of his letter from the Birmingham jail

I know it's not a quote or a sound bite but it still brings a lump to my throat when I read it.

[Broke In Jersey]

28. "Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows."

Definately would not be a huge GWB fan!!!

And for my jewish friends - "peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity."

[Marleyb]

29. "God is Love"

C'mon, somebody else recommend this...this thread belongs on the greatest page.

[ewagner]

31. K & R n/t

[Ptah]

32. My sigline:

"We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt." Martin Luther King, Jr.

Here it here

[pberq]

33. "war as an enemy of the poor"

". . .There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I and others have been waging in America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor, both black and white, through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war. And I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic, destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such. . ."

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

"Beyond Vietnam,"
Address delivered to the Clergy and Laymen Concerned
about Vietnam, at Riverside Church

4 April 1967
New York City

[SidDithers]

34. From I Have a Dream...

"I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Sid

[tgnyc]

35. "America has given the Negro a bad check, marked 'insufficient funds.'"

[dalloway]

36. "The arc of history is long,

but it bends towards justice."

[intheflow]

41. That's one of my favorites!

I was going to post it, but you beat me to it! :hug:

[Horse with no Name]

37. I love these

"When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative."
"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."

[mod mom]

38. ...the appalling silence of the good people.

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.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

[intheflow]

42. My other favorite!

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."

I was going to post that (along with "The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice" that dalloway posted, above), but you both beat me to it.

:hug:

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

39. "The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral,

begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.... Returning violence for violence multiples violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

"Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?"
MLKing 1967

[rateyes]

40. From his letter from the Birmingham Jail...

to white clergy who basically said they agreed with the goals, but not his tactics in the civil rights movement...

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant 'Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."

....

Along with this one....

I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fan in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. 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.

------

Entire letter found here:

http://www.nobelprizes.com/nobel/peace/MLK-jail.html

[cal04]

44. Nonviolence or Nonexistence (Michael Moore's site)

"Today there is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence. I feel that we've got to look at this total thing anew and recognize that we must live together. That the whole world now it is one--not only geographically but it has to become one in terms of brotherly concern. Whether we live in America or Asia or Africa we are all tied in a single garment of destiny and whatever effects one directly, effects one in-directly."

-- Nonviolence or Nonexistence, from a 1967 interview

[KamaAina]

45. "...a society gone mad on war."

Truer today than it was then, sadly.

From the Riverside Church speech:

http://www.pastpeak.com/archives/2005/04/mlk_on_war_and_1.htm

It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor — both black and white — through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated, as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube.

[robbedvoter]

46. I hope I remember this right - from PBS's show

"The biggest danger is innocent stupidity and cinscientious ignorance"

Please correct me if I got it wrong.

[checks-n-balances]

47. You're right, except just switch a few words around

"Nothing is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." The first time I heard those words was in the same speech where I got my sig line.

So eloquent. I think he would have used them today with regard to the religious right.

[robbedvoter]

50. Thanks so much!

[newyawker99]

48. Some favorites.....

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."


"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."


"A man who won't die for something is not fit to live"


"I have a dream that one day…the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood."

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

[Minnesota_Lib]

49. "Is that a roll of nickels in your pocket...?" Gets me every time. J/K

Oh god, now I am going to get flamed big-time.