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.
I am joining the more than 200,000 women who will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year... I am inspired by the brave women who have faced this battle before me and grateful for the support of family and friends.
Let me ask you, sir, when is the time for brave men to exert themselves in the cause of liberty and their country, if this is not?
All actual heroes are essential men, And all men possible heroes.
No government can make me wear a veil, no government can force me not to wear it either
In many ways, my decision to come out changed the course not only of my personal life but of my professional one as well.
No matter what happens in the kitchen, never apologize.
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