There comes a time when a moral man can't obey a law which his conscience tells him is unjust.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of personal conscience over blind obedience to unjust laws.
Martin Luther King, Jr. highlights a critical moment when an individual's moral compass must take precedence over adherence to laws deemed unjust. In this context, he advocates for standing up against societal norms that conflict with one's ethical beliefs, asserting that true morality sometimes requires civil disobedience.
In practice
A speaker at a civil rights rally can use this quote to inspire action against discriminatory laws.
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.
You have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.
My voice went recently, never happened before, off like a tap. I had to sit in silence for nine days, chalkboard around my neck. Like an old-school mime. Like a kid in the naughty corner. Like a Victorian mute.
A bully is playing a game, one that he or she enjoys and needs. You're welcome to play this game if it makes you happy, but for most people, it will make you miserable.
Possessed with a full confidence of the certain success which British valor must gain over such enemies, I have led you up these steep and dangerous rocks, only solicitous to show you the foe within your reach.
The real point is that you cannot harbor malice toward others and then cry foul when someone displays intolerance against you. Prejudice tolerated is intolerance encouraged. Rise up in righteousness when you witness the words and deeds of hate, but only if you are willing to rise up against them all, including your own. Otherwise suffer the slings and arrows of disrespect silently.
The essence of bravery is being without self-deception.
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