My obligation is to do the right thing. The rest is in God’s hands.
When we see social relationships controlled everywhere by the principles which Jesus illustrated in life – trust, love, mercy, and altruism – then we shall know that the kingdom of God is here.
Violence is anything that denies human integrity, and leads to hopelessness and helplessness.
We in the West must bear in mind that the poor countries are poor primarily because we have exploited them through political or economic colonialism.
The Darwinian concept of the survival of the fittest has been substituted by a philosophy of the survival of the slickest.
Often the oppressor goes along unaware of the evil involved in his oppression so long as the oppressed accepts it.
To dislocate the functioning of a city without destroying it can be more effective than a riot because it can be longer-lasting, costly to the society but not wantonly destructive, moreover, it is more difficult for Government to quell it by superior force.
Friends are forever Boys are whatever.
One day we will learn that the heart can never be totally right if the head is totally wrong. Only through the bringing together of head and heart-intelligence and goodness-shall man rise to a fulfillment of his true nature.
The world in which we live is geographically one. The challenge that we face today is to make it one in terms of brotherhood.
Resistance and nonviolence are not in themselves good. There is another element that must be present in our struggle that then makes our resistance and nonviolence truly meaningful. That element is reconciliation. Our ultimate end must be the creation of the beloved community.
Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the struggle for equal rights.
And when you discover what you will be in your life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it. Don’t just set out to do a good job.
I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds of energies in rehabilitation of its poor as long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube.
As we have seen, the first public expression of disenchantment with nonviolence arose around the question of ‘self-defense.’ In a sense this is a false issue, for the right to defend one’s home and one’s person when attacked has been guaranteed through the ages by common law.
In the final analysis, means and ends must cohere because the end is preexistent in the means, and, ultimately, destructive means cannot bring about constructive ends.
Though we live in the colony of time, we are ultimately responsible to the empire of eternity.
I always had a deep affection for Malcolm and felt that he had a great ability to put his finger on the existence and the root of the problem. He was an eloquent spokesman for his point of view and no one can honestly doubt that Malcolm had a great concern for the problems we face as a race.
There is little hope for us until we become tough-minded enough to break loose from the shackles of prejudice, half-truths, and down-right ignorance.
Difficult and painful as it is, we must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future.