Monday, January 18, 2010

"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."  

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In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I've compiled a list of my favorite quotes said by Dr. King. Enjoy, and take today to remind yourself of the messages Dr. King's words sent, and also to think about what you can do to continue his work.

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.
-Strength To Love, 1963.

Many of the ugly pages of American history have been obscured and forgotten....America owes a debt of justice which it has only begun to pay. If it loses the will to finish or slackens in its determination, history will recall its crimes and the country that would be great will lack the most indispensable element of greatness--justice.
-Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967.

Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
-Nobel Prize acceptance speech, 1964.

A good many observers have remarked that if equality could come at once the Negro would not be ready for it. I submit that the white American is even more unprepared.
-Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967.

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... Returning violence for violence multiplies 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.
-Strength To Love, 1963.

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1 comments: to “ "Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."