Words That Live On

Growing up, I never knew much about Martin Luther King, Jr. I knew there was a holiday every January, but I really didn't know who he was or what a huge role he had played in history. I guess growing up in a rural area with a very low population of African-Americans, this part of history was very conveniently left out or brushed over in our social studies classes. Therefore, when I became an adult, moved to Dallas, and began interacting in neighborhoods and with people from backgrounds very different than my own, my eyes began to be opened as just how much I wasn't seeing as to the existence of racism in America and the effects that it continues to have. Suddenly I found myself on a journey...a journey to understand our cultural differences, to understand the stories and lives of people different than myself, to understand the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) systemic injustices in our country, and to really look closely at myself as a middle-class white American and how I have benefitted from "white privilege." The journey is first a quest to understand, and secondly, a quest to know how to "be the change." So it was on this search for deeper awareness that I of course began to read the writings and learn more about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Anyone who finds themselves on this journey will inevitably be led to this man and find themselves changed forever by his ideals, his powerful words, and just the depth of the movement he inspired.

Today is the day our nation has set aside to honor this man, yet it is a tragedy to me how many Americans are really unaware of the impact of Dr. King's life. It is a tragedy to me that this day is too often seen as primarily a "black" holiday. All of us, black, white, brown, or green or purple have so much to learn and a good place to start is with the words that this amazing man left behind.

So today I would like to share just a few of my favorite quotes taken from some of Dr. King's speeches and writings. Read them carefully and let the power and wisdom of his words resonate with you and in your life today...and every day.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."-- "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige and even his life for the welfare of others."-- Strength in Love

"We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people."-- "Letter from Birmingham Jail,"

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."-- Strength in Love

"If a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live."

"Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will."-- "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant."-- Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

"An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity."

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. "

"Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see. "

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it. "

"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. "

"Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals. "

"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear."

"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

"The means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek."

"Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals. "

"Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him. "

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. "

"Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary. "

"Pity may represent little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, but true sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one's soul. "

"The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?" "

"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education. "

"There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love."

"We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now."

"Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality. "

"Whatever your life's work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better. "

"When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative. "