Jesus reminds us that the good life combines the toughness of the serpent and the tenderness of the dove. To have serpent-like qualities devoid of dovelike qualities is to be passionless, mean, and selfish. To have dovelike without serpent-like qualities is to be sentimental, anemic and aimless. We must combine strongly marked antitheses.
Martin Luther King, Jr.True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that a system that produces beggars needs to be repaved. We are called to be the Good Samaritan, but after you lift so many people out of the ditch you start to ask, maybe the whole road to Jericho needs to be repaved.
Martin Luther King, Jr.In the final analysis the weakness of Black Power is its failure to see that the black man needs the white man and the white man needs the black man.
Martin Luther King, Jr.In the current struggle, there is one positive course of action. There is no alternative, for the alternative would connote a rear march.
Martin Luther King, Jr.The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Communism will never be defeated by atomic bombs. Our greatest defense against Communism is to take offensive action on behalf of justice and righteousness. We must seek to remove conditions of poverty, injustice, and racial discrimination.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Somebody told a lie one day. They couched it in language. They made everything Black ugly and evil. Look in your dictionaries and see the synonyms of the word Black. It's always something degrading and low and sinister. Look at the word White, it's always something pure, high and clean.
Martin Luther King, Jr.