I'm concerned about a better world. I'm concerned about justice; I'm concerned about brotherhood; I'm concerned about truth. And when one is concerned about that, he can never advocate violence. For through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can't murder murder. Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can't establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can't murder hate through violence. Darkness cannot put out darkness; only light can do that.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes that true justice and truth can only be achieved through non-violent means.
In this quote, Martin Luther King, Jr. conveys the idea that while violence may temporarily eliminate a harmful individual, it cannot eradicate the underlying issues such as hatred or dishonesty. True progress toward a better world, filled with justice and brotherhood, requires light—representing love, truth, and non-violence—rather than darkness, which symbolizes violence and hatred. King's assertion is a powerful reminder that constructive change must come from compassion and understanding rather than retaliation.
In practice
During a speech at a peace rally.
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.
In short, Clevinger was one of those people with lots of intelligence and no brains, and everyone knew it except those who soon found it out.
Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one.
In the face of an obstacle which is impossible to overcome, stubbornness is stupid.
The hardest thing is to tell the truth about oneself. One doesn't like to remember unpleasant details, but forgetting them makes one's life seem disorganized.
Unfortunately, often found next to things that are true are an enormous number of things that are not - in websites, videos, books and on social media.
Nothing of value is free. Even the breath of life is purchased at birth only through gasping effort and pain... The best things in life are beyond money; their price is agony and sweat and devotion... and the price demanded for the most precious of all things in life is life itself--ultimate cost for perfect value
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