You can't talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can't talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of the slums. You're really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with captains of industry. Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong with capitalism.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the interconnection between economic issues and social justice, suggesting that addressing systemic problems requires a deep examination of capitalism.
In this quote, Martin Luther King Jr. speaks to the necessity of discussing substantial financial implications when addressing the socio-economic challenges faced by the Black community. He asserts that to effectively confront the issues of poverty and urban slums, one must critically evaluate the capitalist system that perpetuates these economic disparities. This statement is significant because it implies that true social change cannot occur without challenging the foundations of capitalism, which often benefits the few at the expense of the many.
In practice
In a discussion on economic reform, one might reference this quote to emphasize the necessity of considering the broader systemic issues.
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.
Tall, aren't you?" she said. "I didn't mean to be." Her eyes rounded. She was puzzled. She was thinking. I could see, even on that short acquaintance, that thinking was always going to be a bother to her.
The next time you experience a blackout, take some solace by looking at the sky. You will not recognize it.
The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
In the fifth season [of Star Trek: The Next Generation] viewers will see more of shipboard life [including] gay crew members in day-to-day circumstances.
Even if it’s a dumb story, telling it changes people just the slightest little bit, just as living the story changes me. An infinitesimal change. And that infinetisimal change ripples outward —ever smaller but everlasting. I will get forgotten, but the stories will last. And so we all matter —maybe less than a lot, but always more than none.
Man can sin against nature in two ways. First, when he sins against his specific rational nature, acting contrary to reason. In this sense, we can say that every sin is a sin against man's nature, because it is against man's right reason.
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