Vox Populi
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Martin Luther King: Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
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I have decided to stick to love…Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
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Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
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In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
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Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.
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If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.
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But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.
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Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.
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There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.
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The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
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Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.
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Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.
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No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they’d die for.
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We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience.
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Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
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A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.
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Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.
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If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’
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We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.
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Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.
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Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. Just keep being friendly to that person. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.
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There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.
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There comes a time when silence is betrayal.
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I have a dream that 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 the content of their character.
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Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.
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As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation — either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.
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I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.
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Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.
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We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
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These quotations are drawn from a number of sources including A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches and I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World and are included in Vox Populi for educational noncommercial purposes only.
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Just what I needed to hear today, too, as Australia attempts to grapple with unprecedented acts of anti-semitism: hateful graffiti, fire-bombed childcare centres, vandalised cars and homes, torched synagogues. I love the wisdom and grace and compassion and extraordinary generosity of MLK’s words. They are a balm to me.
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Me too, David. Thanks for the update from down under. I had no idea that Australia was suffering an onslaught from the right.
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Thanks, Michael. We are not sure if it is from the right or even if there are international actors involved. There has been a rise of Islamophobia here too, though not to the same extent. The Jewish community here is certainly more alarmed than I’ve ever seen before. The government is unequivocally denouncing these attacks and attempting to respond to them but so far few of the perpetrators have been apprehended…
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Thanks Michael. We don’t know yet if it is coming from the right. There are suspicions that it might be being incited by international actors. It has been accompanied by a rise in Islamophobia too. The Jewish community is more alarmed than I have ever seen in my life. The Government has strongly denounced these acts and is attempting to take strong action against them, though few perpetrators have been apprehended so far.
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thank you michael. what’s needed today.
and you chose one of my favorites photos, which i’m now stealing 🙂
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Thanks, Abby. Yes, I like both the photos there. MLK is a hero, but not so long ago, he was considered a criminal rabble-rouser by the police.
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Richard Rohr helps shed light on this paradox on his daily meditation today:
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) modeled how to “integrate the negative” by facing the realities of racism, poverty, and war, while insisting that we follow Jesus’ command to love our enemies.
Let us be practical and ask the question, How do we love our enemies?
First, we must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive…. Forgiveness does not mean ignoring what has been done or putting a false label on an evil act. It means, rather, that the evil act no longer remains as a barrier to the relationship….
Second, we must recognize that the evil deed of the enemy-neighbor, the thing that hurts, never quite expresses all that they are. An element of goodness may be found even in our worst enemy….
There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies. When we look beneath the surface, beneath the impulsive evil deed, we see within our enemy-neighbor a measure of goodness and know that the viciousness and evilness of their acts are not quite representative of all that they are. We see them in a new light. We recognize that their hate grows out of fear, pride, ignorance, prejudice, and misunderstanding, but in spite of this, we know God’s image is ineffably etched in their being. Then we love our enemies by realizing that they are not totally bad and that they are not beyond the reach of God’s redemptive love. [2]
https://cac.org/daily-meditations/the-difficult-work-of-loving-others/
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‘We recognize that their hate grows out of fear, pride, ignorance, prejudice, and misunderstanding, but in spite of this, we know God’s image is ineffably etched in their being.’ Perfect!
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I love King as a writer first; his mastery of Aristotelian Rhetoric is unprecedented, as is his use of literary devices such as metaphor, personification, juxtaposition, and allegory, to name a few. This mastery of language is the very essence of bending poetry toward accessibility. But all pedantics aside, the main reason I love King as a writer first is that he makes teaching writing and, by that token, why we write, easier.
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When I used to teach Freshman Comp, I assigned a trifecta of Socrates’ Phoedo, Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, and King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, three very different arguments on what the individual owes the state and what the state owes the individual. The contrasting arguments made for great class discussion. King’s argument, for my money, is the most convincing.
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Letter from a Birmingham Jail is mandatory reading in my classes, and has been since I’ve been teaching, and I definitely touch upon the D of I. We also review Socrates, although not specifically on Phoedo, but you’ve encouraged me to take a closer look. I also agree King is the most convincing, which also highlights the value in altruistic erudition.
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*
…
And when he’s sold out
and the left-overs wrapped
in a tasseled obituary,
a paranoid funeral notice.
And when the spore-creating mould
of memory
covers him over,
when he falls
arse-first to the stars,
the whole continent will be lighter,
earth’s axis will straighten up
and in night’s thunderous arena
a bird will chirp in gratitude.
(from “Polonius”, by Miroslav Holub,
Selected Poems, Bloodaxe Books)
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Perfect! Thanks, Adrian!
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These wise quotes inspire me, but if we truly act on them, shouldn’t we try to love Trump? Yet with all his layers of destructive lies, this feels impossible.
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Loving Trump? Somewhere buried deep inside him is a little boy who needs to be hugged.
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Let’s celebrate MLK today. Anyone remember this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMrmPx2z3Lk
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Thanks, Rose Mary!
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As I read these and remembered, some hideous words about the small man’s plans flashed on my phone. I am thankful that I remember King’s words, and only remember this new fear as something that will be looked upon as a brief fall into madness.
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Thanks for the compilation of MLK quotes. Am going to forward to a few friends. And today is still MLK Day, not DJT Day, as someday history will once again show.
Let’s keep working to make King’s words and hopes come true. To quote Hillary Clinton: It takes a village. Let’s remember the village Martin Luther King, Jr. envisioned, and be its citizens.
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Hear, hear.
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!!!!!!!!!! And his name and memory is for a blessing.
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MLK is a hero to so many of us. It is a sad irony that his day is also Trump’s day.
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