Was not Abraham Lincoln an extremist? - "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free."
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the idea that a nation divided in its principles cannot endure.
This quote by Martin Luther King, Jr. reflects on the struggle for civil rights and the inherent contradiction in a society that allows both freedom and oppression. King suggests that true survival and unity of a nation depend on its commitment to justice and equality, and that a compromise between freedom and slavery is unsustainable.
In practice
In a speech advocating for civil rights, one might quote this to highlight the necessity of unity in the fight for equality.
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.
Admire the world for never ending on you -- as you would an opponent, without taking your eyes away from him, or walking away.
I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon, Than such a Roman.
If we were logical, the future would be bleak, indeed. But we are more than logical. We are human beings, and we have faith, and we have hope, and we can work.
Sometimes when we are labeled, when we are branded our brand becomes our calling.
Generally speaking, a howling wilderness does not howl: it is the imagination of the traveler that does the howling.
How happy the station which every moment furnishes opportunities of doing good to thousands! How dangerous that which every moment exposes to the injuring of millions!
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