"We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface hidden tension that is already alive
Violence is not only impractical but immoral.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr. ~
Photo by Ákos Szabó
Photo by Ian Turnell
Violence is not only impractical but immoral.
More Martin Luther King, Jr. quotes
"Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monolo...
"At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love
"we shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what...
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it mul...
"But it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same ti...
"Nonviolence is power, but it is the right and good use of power.
"Violence never really deals with the basic evil of the situation. Violence may murder the murderer, but it doesn’t murder murder. Violence may murder ...
"It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation. Not merely for the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people, but for t...
"[Nonviolence] is directed against forces of evil rather than against persons who happen to be doing the evil. It is evil that the nonviolent resister ...
"But I am also concerned about our moral uprightness and the health of our souls. Therefore I must oppose any attempt to gain our freedom by the method...
"We were all involved in the death of John Kennedy. We tolerated hate; we tolerated the sick stimulation of violence in all walks of life; and we toler...
"We did not hesitate to call our movement an army. But it was a special army, with no supplies but its sincerity, no uniform but its determination, no ...
"The non-violent resistor not only avoids external, physical violence, but he avoids internal violence of spirit. He not only refuses to shoot his oppo...
"Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race. Even before there were lar...