An evil deed is not redeemed by an evil deed in retaliation.
Interpretation
Retaliating against evil with more evil does not bring redemption or justice.
Coretta Scott King suggests that responding to wrongdoing with further wrongdoing does not correct the original wrong and often perpetuates a cycle of harm. True justice and healing come from breaking this cycle and responding with a moral and ethical approach, even in the face of injustice.
In practice
In a speech about nonviolent conflict resolution.
I've always felt that homophobic attitudes and policies were unjust and unworthy of a free society and must be opposed by all Americans who believe in democracy. The civil rights movement thrives on unity and inclusion, not division and exclusion. My husband's struggle parallels that of the gay rights movement.
...We have an historic opportunity for a great global healing and renewal. If we will accept the challenge of nonviolent activism with faith, courage, and determination, we can bring this great vision of a world united in peace and harmony from a distant ideal into glowing reality.
I think if people really read Martin Luther King, Jr., then they would begin to understand what he really represented.
It doesn't matter how strong your opinions are. If you don't use your power for positive change, you are, indeed, part of the problem.
Sometimes, I am also identified as a civil rights leader or a human rights activist. I would also like to be thought of as a complex, three-dimensional, flesh-and-blood human being with a rich storehouse of experiences, much like everyone else, yet unique in my own way, much like everyone else.
People don't ever have to starve to death; there are solutions. We have failed if we can't eradicate hunger in Africa and Ethiopia.
Attempts to defend amusement parks and circuses on the grounds that they 'educate' people about animals should not be taken seriously. Such enterprises are part of the commercial entertainment industry. The most important lesson they teach impressionable young minds is that it is acceptable to keep animals in captivity for human amusement.
For the Lord touched all parts of creation, and freed and undeceived them all from every deceit.
Either human intelligence ultimately owes its origin to mindless matter; or there is a Creator. It is strange that some people claim that it is their intelligence that leads them to prefer the first to the second.
Itβs terrible to lie in chains,_x000D_ To rot in dungeon deep,_x000D_ But itβs still worse, when you are free_x000D_ To sleep, and sleep, and sleep.
We owe much to the fruitful meditation of our sages, but a sane view of life is, after all, elaborated mainly in the kitchen.
A person who is knowingly bent on bad behavior, gets upset when better behavior is expected of them.
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