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July 10 - August 9, 2025
“Occasionally in life one develops a conviction so precious and meaningful that he will stand on it till the end. That is what I have found in nonviolence.”)
“So far we have had constitutional backing for most of our demands for change, and this has made our work easier, since we could be sure of legal support from the federal courts. Now we are approaching areas where the voice of the Constitution is not clear.”
“We have left the realm of constitutional rights and we are entering the area of human rights.”
“The poor can stop being poor if the rich are willing to become even richer at a slower rate.”
The legal structures have in practice proved to be neither structures nor law.
The great majority of Americans are suspended between these opposing attitudes. They are uneasy with injustice but unwilling yet to pay a significant price to eradicate it.
the line of progress is never straight.
Mass marches transformed the common man into the star performer and engaged him in a total commitment. Yet nonviolent resistance caused no explosions of anger—it instigated no riots—it controlled anger and released it under discipline for maximum effect.
freedom is not given, it is won.
Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention. There is no other answer. Constructive social change will bring certain tranquillity; evasions will merely encourage turmoil.
I should have known that in an atmosphere where false promises are daily realities, where deferred dreams are nightly facts, where acts of unpunished violence toward Negroes are a way of life, nonviolence would eventually be seriously questioned.
A productive and happy life is not something that you find; it is something that you make.
“No one has ever heard the Jews publicly chant a slogan of Jewish power, but they have power. Through group unity, determination and creative endeavor, they have gained it. The same thing is true of the Irish and Italians. Neither group has used a slogan of Irish or Italian power, but they have worked hard to achieve it. This is exactly what we must do,”
First, it is necessary to understand that Black Power is a cry of disappointment.
This gulf between the laws and their enforcement is one of the basic reasons why Black Power advocates express contempt for the legislative process.
What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.
All too many Negroes and whites are unaware of the fact that the first American to shed blood in the revolution which freed this country from British oppression was a black seaman named Crispus Attucks.
As long as the mind is enslaved the body can never be free.
Today’s despair is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow’s justice.
There is something painfully sad about a riot. One sees screaming youngsters and angry adults fighting hopelessly and aimlessly against impossible odds. Deep down within them you perceive a desire for self-destruction, a suicidal longing.
“Power is never good unless he who has it is good.”
Ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.
There is a tragic gulf between civil rights laws passed and civil rights laws implemented.
To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it.
This is the pressing challenge confronting the white liberal. When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men conspire to preserve an unjust status quo, good men must unite to bring about the birth of a society undergirded by justice. Nothing can be more detrimental to the health of America at this time than for liberals to sink into a state of apathy and indifference.
What man has torn down, he can rebuild.
A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard. It is the desperate, suicidal cry of one who is so fed up with the powerlessness of his cave existence that he asserts that he would rather be dead than ignored.
Life’s piano can only produce the melodies of brotherhood when it is recognized that the black keys are as basic, necessary and beautiful as the white keys.
The Pharaohs had a favorite and effective strategy to keep their slaves in bondage: keep them fighting among themselves. The divide-and-conquer technique has been a potent weapon in the arsenal of oppression. But when slaves unite, the Red Seas of history open and the Egypts of slavery crumble.
All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and worth and should be pursued with respect for excellence.
We will be greatly misled if we feel that the problem will work itself out. Structures of evil do not crumble by passive waiting.
Why are there forty million poor people in a nation overflowing with such unbelievable affluence? Why has our nation placed itself in the position of being God’s military agent on earth, and intervened recklessly in Vietnam and the Dominican Republic? Why have we substituted the arrogant undertaking of policing the whole world for the high task of putting our own house in order?
Millions of underprivileged whites are in the process of considering the contradiction between segregation and economic progress. White supremacy can feed their egos but not their stomachs.
To attempt radical reform without adequate organization is like trying to sail a boat without a rudder.
Laws only declare rights; they do not deliver them.
I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective—the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.
One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change.
When scientific power outruns moral power, we end up with guided missiles and misguided men.
Racism is no mere American phenomenon. Its vicious grasp knows no geographical boundaries. In fact, racism and its perennial ally—economic exploitation—provide the key to understanding most of the international complications of this generation.
The life and destiny of Latin America are in the hands of United States corporations. The decisions affecting the lives of South Americans are ostensibly made by their government, but there are almost no legitimate democracies alive in the whole continent.
There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we now have the resources to get rid of it.
There is no deficit in human resources; the deficit is in human will.
In a real sense, all life is interrelated.
“Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.”
It is not enough to say, “We must not wage war.” It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.
We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing”-oriented society to a “person”-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
