I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. No other person has been more eloquent and passionate in getting this idea across than Henry David Thoreau. As a result of his writings and personal witness, we are the heirs of a legacy of creative protest.
Interpretation
Noncooperation with evil is as essential a moral duty as cooperating with good.
Martin Luther King, Jr. emphasizes the importance of actively resisting evil in society, arguing that turning a blind eye to wrongdoing is not a neutral stance but a moral failing. He acknowledges the influence of Henry David Thoreau, whose ideas on civil disobedience inspire individuals to engage in creative forms of protest against injustice.
In practice
During a speech at a civil rights rally to encourage active resistance against injustice.
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.
Always do what you are afraid to do.
First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.
I'm a survivor - a living example of what people can go through and survive.
The fixed determination to have acquired the warrior soul, to either conquer or perish with honor, is the secret of victory.
Everyone asks me how I stay calm on court and I think it's because I accepted who I am after overcoming low points in my life.
To be courageous requires no exceptional qualifications, no magic formula, no special combination of time, place, and circumstance. It is an opportunity that sooner or later is presented to us all.
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