We as Christians have a mandate to be nonconformists.

We must combine the toughness of the serpent with the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart.

Nonviolence is an imperative in order to bring about ultimate community.

The soft-minded man always fears change. He feels security in the status quo, and he has an almost morbid fear of the new. For him, the greatest pain is the pain of a new idea.

When we ask Negroes to abide by the law, let us also declare that the white man does not abide by law in the ghettos. Day in and day out he violates welfare laws to deprive the poor of their meager allotments; he flagrantly violates building codes and regulations; his police make a mockery of law; he violates laws on equal employment and education and the provisions of civil services. The slums are the handiwork of a vicious system of the white society; Negroes live in them, but they do not make them, any more than a prisoner makes a prison.

Before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you've depended on more than half of the world.

In order to be true to one's conscience and true to God, a righteous man has no alternative but to refuse to cooperate with an evil system.