Quote

And violence is impractical, because the old eye for an eye philosophy ends up leaving everybody blind .. It is immoral because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for everybody. Means and ends are inseparable. The means represent the ideal in the making in the long run of history destructive means cannot bring about constructive ends.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Age: 39 †
Born: 1929
Born: January 15
Died: 1968
Died: April 4
Civil Rights Advocate
Human Rights Activist
Humanitarian
Leader
Minister
Pacifist
Pastor
Peace Activist
Politician
Preacher
Theologian
Atlanta
Georgia
MLK
Martin Luther King
Dr. King
Michael King
Michael King Jr.
M.L. King
Martin Luther
Jr. King
Martin Luther King
Jr.
Means
Violence
Ending
Running
Philosophy
Represent
Impractical
Cannot
Bring
Destructive
Spiral
Ends
Everybody
Ideal
Spirals
Mean
Eye
Ideals
Descending
Long
Making
Leaving
Inseparable
War
Destruction
Constructive
History
Blind
Immoral

More quotes by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Image
Everybody has the blues. Everybody longs for meaning. Everybody needs to love and be loved. Everybody needs to clap hands and be happy. Everybody longs for faith. In music, especially this broad category called jazz, there is a stepping-stone to all of these.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Image
It is a cruel injustice to tell a bootless man to pull himself up by his bootstraps.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Image
For years now I have heard the word wait. It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This wait has almost always meant never.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Image
Our problem is not to be rid of fear but rather to harness and master it.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Image
It was argued that the Negro was inferior by nature because of Noah's curse upon the children of Ham.... The greatest blasphemy of the whole ugly process was that the white man ended up making God his partner in the exploitation of the Negro.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Image
There may have been a time when war served as a negative good by preventing the spread and growth of an evil force, but the destructive power of modern weapons eliminates even the possibility that war may serve as a negative good.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Image
Each one of us has the power to make others feel better or worse. Making others feel better is much more fun than making others feel worse. Making others feel better generally makes us feel better
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Image
I agree with Dante, that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. There comes a time when silence becomes betrayal.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Image
Are you able to accept blows without retaliating? and Are you able to endure the ordeals of jail?
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Image
White Americans must be made to understand the basic motives underlying Negro demonstrations. Many pent-up resentments and latent frustrations are boiling inside the Negro, and he must release them. It is not a threat but a fact of history that if an oppressed people's pent-up emotions are not nonviolently released, they will be violently released.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Image
We cannot walk alone.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Image
If you want to move people, it has to be toward a vision that's positive for them, that taps important values, that gets them something they desire and it has to be presented in a compelling way so that they feel inspired to follow.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Image
The Christian faith makes it possible for us nobly to accept that which cannot be changed, and to meet disappointments and sorrow with an inner poise, and to absorb the most intense pain without abandoning our sense of hope.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Image
The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Image
The ultimate solution to the race problem lies in the willingness of men to obey the unenforceable.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Image
There is nothing but a lack of social vision to prevent us from paying an adequate wage to every American citizen whether he be a hospital worker, laundry worker, maid or day laborer
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Image
Our age is one of guided missiles and unguided men.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Image
If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover these precious values - that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Image
Never, never be afraid to do what's right.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Image
Jazz speaks for life. This is triumphant music.
Martin Luther King, Jr.