Status Updates From Letter from Birmingham Jail

"When you get all three of these together, you will recognize that out of one blood God made all men to dwell upon the face of the earth...*"

"When you get all three of these working together, you will do unto others as you’d have them do unto you."

"When you get all three of these together, you look up and every valley will be exalted, and every hill and mountain will be made low; the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places straight; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh will see it together."

"And when you get all three of these together, you can walk and never get weary. You can look up and see the morning stars singing together, and the sons of God shouting for joy. When you get all of these working together in your very life, judgement will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

"And I’m going to take my seat now by letting you know that there’s a first and even greater commandment: “Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength.’ I think the psychologist would just say with all thy personality. And when you do that, you've got the breadth of life. "

"Go out this morning. Love yourself, and that means rational and healthy self-interest. You are commanded to do that. That’s the length of life. Then follow that: Love your neighbor as you love yourself. You are commanded to do that. That’s the breadth of life."

"Maybe we have to know him and discover him another way. One day you ought to rise up and say, ‘I know him because he’s a lily of the valley. He’s a bright and morning star. He’s a rose of Sharon. He’s a battle-axe in the time of Babylon.’ And then somewhere you ought to just reach out and say, ‘He’s my everything."

"You may not be able to define God in philosophical terms. Men through the ages have tried to talk about him. Plato said that he was the Architectonic Good. Aristotle called him the Unmoved Mover. Hegel called him the Absolute Whole. Then there was a man named Paul Tillich who called him Being-Itself. We don’t need to know all of these high-sounding terms."

"He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone. No, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. And I go on in believing that. Reach out and find the breadth of life. "

"It seems that I can hear a voice speaking even this morning, saying to all of us, ‘Stand up for what is right. Stand up for what is just. Lo, I will be with you even until the end of the world.’ "

"Darker yet may be the night,
Harder yet may be the fight.
Just stand up for that which is right."

"Since that time I’ve had many frustrating and bewildering nights. But over and over again I can still hear Sister Pollard’s words: “God’s going to take care of you.’ So today I can face any man and any woman with my feet solidly placed on the ground and my head in the air because I know that when you are right, God will fight your battle."

"And then she finally said, “Now come close to me and let me tell you something one more time, and I want you to hear it this time.’ She said, “Now I done told you we is with you.’ She said, “Now, even if we ain’t with you, the Lord is with you.’ And she concluded by saying, “The Lord’s going to take care of you.’"

"Somewhere I read, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof,’ and I’m going on because I have faith in Him. I do not know what the future holds, but I do know who holds the future. And if He’ll guide us and hold our hand, we’ll go on in."

"And all of these things can get you confused, but they don’t worry me. Because the God that I worship is a God that has a way of saying even to kings and even to governors, “Be still, and know that I am God.’"

"We were made for God, and we will be restless until we find rest in him."

"And God is the only being in the universe that can say ‘I Am’ and puta period behind it."

"And I’m here to tell you today that we need God. Modern man may know a great deal, but his knowledge does not eliminate God. And I tell you this morning that God is here to stay."

A"nd I’m here to tell you today that we need God. Modern man may know a great deal, but his knowledge does not eliminate God. And I tell you this morning that God is here to stay."

"They become so involved in thinking about man’s progress that they forget to think about the need for God’s power in history. They end up going days and days not knowing that God is not with them."

"They become so busy thinking about radar and their television that they unconsciously forget to think about the stars that bedeck the heavens like swinging lanterns of eternity, those stars that appear to be shiny, silvery pins sticking in the magnificent blue pincushion."

"There are those who become so involved in looking at the man-made lights of the city that they unconsciously forget to rise up and look at that great cosmic light and think about it — that gets up in the eastern horizon every morning and moves across the sky with a kind of symphony of motion and paints its technicolor across the blue — a light that man can never make."

"The other kind is a practical atheism, and that kind goes out of living as if there is no God. And you know there are a lot of people who affirm the existence of God with their lips, and they deny his existence with their lives. You've seen these people who have a high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds."

"And you know, there are two kinds of atheism. Atheism is the theory that there is no God. Now one kind is a theoretical kind, where somebody just sits down and starts thinking about it, and they come to a conclusion that there is no God."

"We must move beyond humanity and reach up, way up for the God of the universe, whose purpose changeth not."

"Before you get through eating breakfast in the morning, you're dependent on more than half the world. That’s the way God structured it; that’s the way God structured this world. So let us be concerned about others because we are dependent on others."

"That’s the sermon I'd like to hear: “Well done my good and faithful servant. You’ve been faithful; you've been concerned about others.’ That’s where I want to go from this point on for the rest of my days. ‘He who is greatest among you shall be your servant.’ I want to be a servant. I want to be a witness for my Lord, to do something for others."

"I don’t want a long funeral. In fact, I don’t even need a eulogy more than one or two minutes. I hope that I will live so well the rest of the days — I don’t know how long I'll live, and I’m not concerned about that — but I hope I can live so well that the preacher can get up and say, “He was faithful.’ That’s all, that’s enough."

"Somewhere along the way, we must learn that there is nothing greater than to do something for others. And this is the way I’ve decided to go the rest of my days. That’s what I’m concerned about."