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On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. approached the Lincoln Memorial and looked out upon a sea of eyes and ears waiting on his next word. He told the masses about a dream where a white child and a black child can live comfortably among one another without the bludgeon of racial prejudice drawing them apart. A land where we look at a person and judge “not for their color of their skin, but for the content of their character.”
If King were alive and looking out among the masses of today, he’d see a lot of progress; integrated families on television and in real life, an environment where people with different skin colors and cultures can fall in-love, raise families, and lay aside the prejudices and fears of our ancestors. But then he’d also be upset with some of the lingering divisions that draw America apart; as why do some communities still largely segregate themselves according to race and why has our liberal college campuses fallen back to enforcing segregationist policies themselves? And it is frankly obvious that politicians and media outlets from both sides still prey upon and capitalize upon race to divide our country even more.
It is 2017, over half a century since MLK gave his famed “I Have A Dream Speech” in Washington D.C.
To all the frenzied, obsessed college students who are out “fighting oppression,” you should realize that an angry mind can be the most tyrannical of all, as MLK had to endure years of horrific and demeaning examples of human cruelty, but moved on with a positive outlook towards the future. As the lesson should not be how many times we’ve struggled, but how much we’ve overcome.
Here’s words from the master of kindness and intelligence. The best quotes from MLK leading up to his “I have a dream” speech in its entirety…
Martin Luther King Jr Quotes: Best Quotes & Most-Famous Sayings
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
“Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.”
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.””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.”
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
“I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
“The time is always right to do what is right.”
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
“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.”
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”
“Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. I am not unmindful of the fact that violence often brings about momentary results. Nations have frequently won their independence in battle. But in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace.”
“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
“The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one.”
“Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies – or else? The chain reaction of evil – hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars – must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.”
“Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.”
“A lie cannot live.”
“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.”
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
“I have decided to stick to love…Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
“Only in the darkness can you see the stars.”
“If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vDWWy4CMhE
