To resort to power one need not be violent, and to speak to conscience one need not be meek. The most effective action both resorts to power and engages conscience. Nonviolent actions does not have to get others to be nice. It can in effect force them to consult their consciences. Nor does it have to petition those in power to do something about a situation. It can face the authorities with a new fact and say: Accept this new situation which we have created.

We cannot live without our lives

A liberation movement that is nonviolent sets the oppressor free as well as the oppressed.

People may find it more comfortable to listen to us if we equivocate, but in the long run only words that discomfort them are going to change our situation.

To resort to power one need not be violent, and to speak to conscience one need not be meek.

Think first of the action that is right to take, think later about coping with one's fears.

there is clearly a kind of anger that is healthy. It is the concentration of one's whole being in the determination: this must change.