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Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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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.
Society
Creates
Destroyers
Rather
Dialogue
Brutality
Makes
Leaves
Survivor
Ends
Brilliant
Destroys
Monologue
Love
Hatred
Immoral
Thrives
Violence
Brotherhood
Defeating
Impossible
Bitterness
Monologues
Community
Thrive
Survivors

More quotes by Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Man was born into barbarism when killing his fellow man was a normal condition of existence. He became endowed with a conscience. And he has now reached the day when violence toward another human being must become as abhorrent as eating another's flesh.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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We decided to set our direct-action program around the Easter season, realizing that, with exception of Christmas, this was the largest shopping period of the year. Knowing that a strong economic withdrawal program would be the by-product of direct action.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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The greatest purveyor of violence in the world : My own Government, I can not be Silent.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Even if they try to kill you, you develop the inner conviction that there are some things so precious, some things so eternally true that they are worth dying for. And if a person has not found something to die for, that person isn't fit to live!
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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I must face the fact, as all others in positions of leadership must do, that America today is an extremely sick nation, and that something could well happen to me at any time. I feel, though, that my cause is so right, so moral, that if I should lose my life, in some way it would aid the cause.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of a genuine civilization struggling to be born.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Power is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice is love correcting everything that goes against love.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Everyone has the power for greatness, not for fame but greatness, because greatness is determined by service.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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We need to recapture the gospel glow of the early Christians who were nonconformists in the truest sense of the word . . . Their powerful gospel put an end to such barbaric evils as infanticide and bloody gladiatorial contests. Finally, they captured the Roman Empire for Jesus Christ.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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I am convinced that love is the most durable power in the world. It is not an expression of impractical idealism, but of practical realism.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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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.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Mother Dear, one day I'm going to turn this world upside down. --From My Brother Martin, by Christine King Farris
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Hate destroys the very structure of the personality of the hater. [...] when you start hating anybody, it destroys the very center of your creative response to life and the universe so love everybody.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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The purpose of direct action is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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In order to be true to one's conscience and true to God, a righteous man has no alternative but to refuse to cooperate with an evil system.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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The reason I can't follow the old eye-for-an-eye philosophy is that it ends up leaving everyone blind.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Somehow we must transform the dynamics of the world power struggle from the negative nuclear arms race which no one can win to a positive contest to harness man's creative genius for the purpose of making peace and prosperity a reality for all of the nations of the world.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Man is not made for the state the state is made for man. To deprive man of freedom is to relegate him to the status of a thing, rather than elevate him to the status of a person. Man must never be treated as a means to the end of the state, but always as an end within himself.
Martin Luther King, Jr.