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Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes - Page 27

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A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.

A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Motivational, Spiritual, Men
BiographyPersonal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

If your opponent has a conscience, then follow Gandhi and nonviolence. But if your enemy has no conscience like Hitler, then follow Bonhoeffer.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Enemy, Opponents, Bonhoeffer

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.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Jesus, Home, Cities

I was convinced that worship at its best is a social experience with people of all levels of life coming together to realize their oneness and unity under God. Whenever the church, consciously or unconsciously, caters to one class it loses the spiritual force of the "whosoever will, let him come, doctrine and is in danger of becoming a little more than a social club with a thin veneer of religiosity."

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Spiritual, Class, Oneness
"A Martin Luther King Treasury".

The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Men, Thinking, Criminals
Martin Luther King (1992). “The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr”, p.124, Univ of California Press

We can either walk the highroad of brotherhood or the low road of man's inhumanity to man.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Men, Inhumanity To Man, Brotherhood

The group consisting of mother, father and child is the main educational agency of mankind.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Education, Mother, Children

We know nothing about Africa, although our roots are there in terms of our forbearers. But I mean as far as the average Negro today, he knows nothing about Africa. And I think he's got to face the fact that he is an American, his culture is basically American, and one becomes adjusted to this when he realizes what, what he is.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Mean, Thinking, Average
Source: www.theatlantic.com

A time comes when silence is betrayal. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought, within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Betrayal, War, Moving
Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence, Delivered 4 April 1967, Riverside Church, New York City

Let the Negro march. Let him make pilgrimages to city hall. Let him go on freedom rides. And above all, make an effort to understand why he must do this. For if his frustration and despair are allowed to continue piling up, millions of Negroes will seek solace and security in black-nationalist ideologies. And this, inevitably, would lead to a frightening racial nightmare.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Frustration, Cities, Effort
Source: www.thedailybeast.com

I may be crucified for my beliefs and, if I am, you can say, "He died to make men free.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Sacrifice, Men, May

The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Gratitude, Art, Acceptance
Reader's Digest, December 1954.

In his essay 'Self-Reliance' Emerson wrote, 'Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.' The Apostle Paul reminds us that whoso would be a Christian must also be a a nonconformist. Any Christian who blindly accepts the opinions of the majority and in fear and timidity follows a path of expediency and social approval is a mental and spiritual slave.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Christian, Spiritual, Men
"Strength to Love". Book by Martin Luther King, Jr. , Ch. 2, 1963.

War is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Funny, War, Tomorrow

Property is intended to serve life, and no matter how much we surround it with rights and respect, it has no personal being. It is part of the earth man walks on. It is not man.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Life, Respect, Men
Martin Luther King, Martin Luther King (Jr.) (1989). “The trumpet of conscience”, HarperCollins

The trailblazers in human, academic, scientific and religious freedom have always been nonconformists.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Religious, Academic, Nonconformist
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2012). “A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings”, p.35, Beacon Press

Some people are so worn down by the yoke of oppression that they give up.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Inspirational, Giving Up, People
Martin Luther King (Jr.), Alex Ayres (1993). “The Wisdom of Martin Luther King, Jr”, Plume

We must all learn to live together as brothers. Or we will all perish together as foolsFor some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Brother, Together, Strange
Methodist Student Leadership Conference Address, delivered 1964, Lincoln, Nebraska

We were all involved in the death of John Kennedy. We tolerated hate; we tolerated the sick stimulation of violence in all walks of life; and we tolerated the differential application of law, which said that a man's life was sacred only if we agreed with his views.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Hate, Men, Views
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2011). “Why We Can't Wait”, p.108, Beacon Press

When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You are talking anti-Semitism.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Mean, Talking, People
"The Socialism of Fools : The Left, the Jews and Israel" by Seymour Martin Lipset in "Encounter magazine", p. 24, December 1969.

The potential beauty of human life is constantly made ugly by man's ever recurring song of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever rising tides of revenge. Man has never risen above the injunction of the lex talionis: "Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot." In spite of the fact that the law of revenge solves no social problems, men continue to follow its disastrous leading. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Song, Revenge, Ocean

A man who has nothing he is willing to die for has nothing worth living for

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Men, Willing, Dies

History will have to recordThat the greatest tragedy of this period of social transitionWas not the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad peopleBut the appalling silence and indifference of the good.Our generation will have to repent notOnly for the words and actions of the children of darknessBut also for the fears and apathy of thechildren of light.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Courage, Children, Light

If the cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. Because the goal of America is freedom, abused and scorned tho' we may be, our destiny is tied up with America's destiny.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Freedom, Destiny, America

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day, even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into a oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream 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 content of their character. I have a dream today!

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dream, Children, Character
Speech at Civil Rights March,Washington, D.C., 28 Aug. 1963

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