We all have the drum major instinct. We all want to be important, to surpass others, to achieve distinction, to lead the parade.

A third reason why we should love our enemies is that love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. We never get rid of an enemy by meeting hate with hate; we get rid of an enemy by getting rid of enmity. By its very nature, hate destroys and tears down; by its very nature, love creates and builds up. Love transforms with redemptive power.

True compassion is more than throwing a coin to a beggar. It demands of our humanity that if we live in a society that produces beggars, we are morally commanded to restructure that society.

History has thrust something upon me from which I cannot turn away.

Lukewarm acceptance is more bewildering than outright rejection.

We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem.

By its very nature, hate destroys and tears down; by its very nature, love creates and builds up.