Originally posted on sciy.org by Ron Anastasia on Sun 21 Jan 2007 01:18 PM PST
Thanks to our friend Katherine Grace McGlothlin for these inspiring quotes honoring Dr. King, on his birthday, Jan. 16:
PEACE QUOTES FROM MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
Riverside Church, New York City, 1967
“Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when it
helps us to see the enemy’s point of view, to hear his questions, to know
his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic
weakness of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow
and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.â€
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 - 1968) Baptist minister, author, civil rights activist, excerpts from his acceptance speech, when receiving the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize.
"Nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which
makes for social transformation. Sooner or later all the people of the world
will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform
this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood.
If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method
which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a
method is love..........
I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and jetsom in the river
of life unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I
refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the
starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and
brotherhood can never become a reality.
I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral
down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I
believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word
in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil
triumphant...........
I believe that even amid today's mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is
still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying
prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from
this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men.........
I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals
a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity,
equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered
men have torn down, men other-centered can build up. I still believe that
one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant
over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive goodwill will proclaim the
rule of the land.
"And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit
under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid."
I still believe that we shall overcome."
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