CLEAR ALL
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.
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What affects one in a major way, affects all in a minor way.
We must learn that passively to accept an unjust system is to cooperate with that system, and thereby to become a participant in its evil.
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If we do an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, we will be a blind and toothless nation.
He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.
I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.
We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.
Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.
We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.
One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. Every society has its protectors of status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions.