What's Your Favorite Martin Luther King Quote?
Monday, January 18, 2010 at 01:36PM Here's mine: "The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice."I love the metaphor and poetry as well as its meaning. As a leader, King used language not just to exhort but to inspire.
This quote inspires me to keep working for women's rights even in the most challenging times. What's your favorite MLK quote? Here are a few to get you thinking, and his "I Have a Dream" speech:
"A right delayed is a right denied."
"A riot is the language of the unheard."
"At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love."
"Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals."
"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."
"I have a dream that 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 the content of their character."
"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear."
"I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live."
"I want to be the white man's brother, not his brother-in-law."
"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'"
"Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon."
"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
"The true measure of a man (NB: I assume if her were spaking today he'd include 'women') is not where he stands in time of comfort and convenience but where he stands in times of controversy and challenge."
Reader Comments (6)
Bonnie McEwan from Facebook
That's a really good one. Mine is, "We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline." This is from the I Have a Dream Speech and I love that he urged people not to fall prey to bitterness and rage, no matter how much it may feel justifiable. That's a breath-taking statement, given US history.
Gloria Feldt
Bonnie, I caught that sentence when I was listening to the speech earlier today. Thanks for flagging it.
From Facebook
Deborah Sagner
Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice; say that I was a drum major for peace; I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. 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. And that's all I want to say.
Gloria Feldt
Beautiful, Deborah. Give me goosebumps
Madama Ambi from facebook
drum major for justice...inspired...but, when I think of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther, I always hear "I have a dream..." in his thundering w/feeling throat...I don't hear/remember all the things he dreamed were possible, but I hear so many meanings/resonances in "having a dream," including having vision, courage and voice...
Liz Sanderson from Facebook
...we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
This is from The Power of Nonviolence
At this point, when Democratic bigshots are casting all manner of aspersions on Martha Coakley, trying desperately to evade the implications of this shocking defeat, anything to deny it was a referendum on all the betrayals of Obama and his party, it is high time for people of character to refuse to adjust themselves to political reality! The Democratic Party is a sinking ship and will not learn its lesson.
Aletha, I believe that most of the advances in society are the result of people who are on the margins, who are boundary breakers by virtue of being somehow "different" from the "normal" and as a consequence they can see things in different ways. They can think new thoughts. They are open to ideas that the rest of us might resist.