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Protest
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We who in engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Racism
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It is incontestable and deplorable that Negroes have committed crimes; but they are derivative crimes. They are born of the greater crimes of the white society.
-Martin Luther King, Jr., Address to Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Atlanta, 16 August 1967
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Reality
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I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Relationships
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I want to be the white man's brother, not his brother-in-law.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Religion
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Yes, I see the Church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Revenge
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That old law about an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Revolution
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The more there are riots, the more repressive actin will take place, and the more we face the danger of a right-wing takeover and eventually a fascist society.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Riots are the voices of the unheard.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
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In this Revolution no plans have been written for retreat.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
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A riot is the language of the unheard.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Right, Rightness
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When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Satisfaction
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No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Science
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Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
-Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love, 1963
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We have genuflected before the god of science only to find that it has given us the atomic bomb, producing fears and anxieties that science can never mitigate.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Service
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Life's most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others? Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Suffering
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My personal trials have also taught me the value of unmerited suffering. As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways that 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. Recognizing the necessity for suffering I have tried to make of it virtue. If only to save myself from bitterness, I have attempted to see my personal ordeals as an opportunity to transform myself and heal the people involved in the tragic situation, which now obtains. I have lived these last few years with the conviction that unearned suffering is redemptive.
-Martin Luther King, Jr., "Christian Century Magazine", April 27, 1960
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Sympathy
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Pity may represent little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, but true sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one's soul.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Thought
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Nothing pains some people more than having to think.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Time
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We must use time creatively -- and forever realize that the time is always hope to do great things.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Tragedy
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There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Understanding
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Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill-will.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Vietnam
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One of the greatest casualties of the war in Vietnam is the Great Society ... shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Violence
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The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility.
-Martin Luther King, Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience
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Virtue
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The time is always right to do what is right.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
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War
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War is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Books by and about Martin Luther King, Jr.