I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. No other person has been more eloquent and passionate in getting this idea across than Henry David Thoreau. As a result of his writings and personal witness, we are the heirs of a legacy of creative protest.
Interpretation
Noncooperation with evil is as essential a moral duty as cooperating with good.
Martin Luther King, Jr. emphasizes the importance of actively resisting evil in society, arguing that turning a blind eye to wrongdoing is not a neutral stance but a moral failing. He acknowledges the influence of Henry David Thoreau, whose ideas on civil disobedience inspire individuals to engage in creative forms of protest against injustice.
In practice
During a speech at a civil rights rally to encourage active resistance against injustice.
This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love.
Music is the best consolation for a despaired man
We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love.
We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.
Israel... is one of the great outpost of democracy in the world
One of the greatest casualties of the war in Vietnam is the Great Society... shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam.
Accept that all of us can be hurt, that all of us can and surely will at times fail. Other vulnerabilities, like being embarrassed or risking love, can be terrifying, too. I think we should follow a simple rule: if we can take the worst, take the risk.
Courage in the path is what makes the path manifest itself.
But steel bars have never yet kept out a mob; it takes something a good deal stronger: human courage backed up by the consciousness of being right.
When I did get captured, the only thing I held onto was the fact that my teammates were going to come get me. Period.
Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster.
In her heart she is a mourner for those who have not survived. In her soul she is a warrior for those who are now as she was then. In her life she is both celebrant and proof of women's capacity and will to survive, to become, to act, to change self and society. And each year she is stronger and there are more of her.
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