Death of a King Quotes

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.”
― Tavis Smiley, Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Final Year

“I refuse to despair in this moment. I refuse to allow myself to fall into the dark chambers of pessimism, because I think in any social revolution the one thing that keeps it going is hope, and when hope dies somehow the revolution degenerates into a kind of nihilistic philosophy which says you must engage in disruption for disruption’s sake.… I believe that the forces of goodwill, white and black, in this country can work together to bring about a resolution.… We have the resources to do it.…”
― Tavis Smiley, Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Final Year

“If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness.”
― Tavis Smiley, Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Final Year

“All he could think of was how all people require attention. All people require respect. All people require acknowledgment. All people require love.”
― Tavis Smiley, Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Final Year

“Hope is not desire.… You may desire money, but you hope for peace. You may desire sex, but you hope for freedom. You may desire beautiful clothes, but you hope for the ringing of justice. You see, desire has an ‘I’ quality, but hope has a ‘we’ quality.… I’ve seen people who have lost hope. They wander through life, but somehow they never live life.… They merely exist.… I have seen hate, and all the time I see it, I say to myself, ‘Hate is too great a burden to bear.’ I don’t want to be like that.… It is only through love that we keep hope alive.… Hope is based on faith that life has ultimate meaning.”
― Tavis Smiley, Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Final Year

“The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness.”
― Tavis Smiley, Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Final Year

“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.” Doc”
― Tavis Smiley, Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Final Year

“The man who has been to ‘No House’ is as significant as the man who’s been to Morehouse.… The person who picks up our garbage is as significant as the physician.… All labor has worth.… You are reminding not only Memphis but the nation that it is a crime for people to live in this rich nation and receive starvation wages.… The vast majority of Negroes in our country are still perishing on a lonely island of poverty in a vast ocean of material prosperity.…”
― Tavis Smiley, Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Final Year

“The draft,” he shouts, “is white people sending black people to make war on yellow people in order to defend the land they stole from red people. The draft must end: not tomorrow, not next week, but today.”
― Tavis Smiley, Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Final Year