The spirit of Lincoln still lives; that spirit born of the teachings of the Nazarene, who promised mercy to the merciful, who lifted the lowly, strengthened the weak, ate with publicans, and made the captives free. In the light of this divine example, the doctrines of demagogues shiver in their chaff.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the enduring influence of Lincoln's compassionate spirit, rooted in the teachings of Jesus, in contrast to the empty rhetoric of demagogues.
Martin Luther King, Jr. reflects on the lasting legacy of Abraham Lincoln, suggesting that Lincoln's guiding principles of mercy and compassion, derived from the teachings of Jesus, are far more powerful and significant than the shallow doctrines propagated by demagogues. This quote highlights the importance of genuine kindness and moral leadership over empty political rhetoric, advocating for a society that embraces these values.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of compassion in leadership.
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.
What a mistake those who do not hope make! Judas made a huge blunder the day in which he sold Christ for 30 denarii, but he made an even bigger one when he thought that his sin was too great to be forgiven. No sin is too big: any wretchedness, however great, can always be enclosed in infinite mercy.
What is grand is necessarily obscure to weak men. That which can be made explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.
If you turn the imagination loose like a hunting dog, it will often return with the bird in its mouth.
Endlessly amused by people's minds.
I'm a person that carries everything that happened to me in my past, with me into the future. I refuse to let it make me bitter. I still completely believe in love and I remain open to anything that will happen to me.
Health is the condition of wisdom, and the sign is cheerfulness, - an open and noble temper.
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