He would have been 83 today. He was killed at age 39.He changed a nation.He did more in 39 years and he’s done more since his death than most of us even attempt to do.We still take many of his lessons and speeches and impart them in our every day lives. Many of his lessons we still have yet to learn. I often wonder what he would think about us today, in 2012, and would he be proud, ashamed, optimistic, or even annoyed.
Here are some of my FAVORITE MLK quotes that help me in the problems I face today.
“A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.”
“A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.”
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
“History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”
“I am not interested in power for power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.”
“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”
“I want to be the white man’s brother, not his brother-in-law.”
“Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress”
“Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.”
The amazing thing about the words, works, and speeches of MLK is that they speak truth about every group of people that has been/is being oppressed still to this day; not just for people of color.
