When Dr. King was murdered, I had no idea who he was. But as soon as I heard his words on television that night when I was 9 years old, I was dumbstruck, awestruck by their power.
Interpretation
The speaker reflects on the profound impact of Dr. King's words upon first hearing them, highlighting their transformative power.
Michael Eric Dyson recalls the moment he first encountered the powerful words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Despite being unaware of who Dr. King was at the time, the speaker was deeply moved by the strength and resonance of his message. This underscores the idea that great words can transcend the moment and create lasting impressions on individuals, even when they are initially unaware of the context or significance behind them.
In practice
During a school assembly discussing civil rights, this quote can inspire students to understand the importance of powerful speeches.
Hip hop scholarship must strive to reflect the form it interrogates, offering the same features as the best hip hop: seductive rhythms, throbbing beats, intelligent lyrics, soulful samples, and a sense of joy that is never exhausted in one sitting.
Oprah Winfrey represents the most ingenious and creative expression of black spiritual genius in the public mainstream that we've had in quite a long time, if ever.
My ambition didn't grow out of nowhere. It was planted in me by a community that nurtured me.
I grew up in Detroit. I was a teen father. I lived on welfare for three years. I have a brother serving life in prison, though I believe he's innocent.
George Bush ran a campaign where he bragged about being an anti-intellectual, dismissing his Harvard and Yale pedigree, pretending he was an American every day, ordinary everyman, and as a result of that, played up his fumbling speech because it signified that he was a good guy. That is deeply and profoundly anti-intellectual.
Charity is no substitute for justice. If we never challenge a social order that allows some to accumulate wealth--even if they decide to help the less fortunate--while others are short-changed, then even acts of kindness end up supporting unjust arrangements. We must never ignore the injustices that make charity necessary, or the inequalities that make it possible.
If you wouldn't live long, live well; for folly and wickedness shorten life.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.
He who cannot rest, cannot work; he who cannot let go, cannot hold on; he who cannot find footing, cannot go forward.
I think that if you live long enough, you realize that so much of what happens in life is out of your control, but how you respond to it is in your control. That's what I try to remember.
The Sufis advise us to speak only after our words have managed to pass through three gates. At the first gate, we ask ourselves, 'Are these words true?' If so, we let them pass on; if not, back they go. At the second gate, we ask, 'Are the necessary?' At the last gate, we ask, 'Are they kind?'
You never enjoy the world aright, till the Sea itself flowers in your veins,_x000D_ till you are clothed with the heavens, and crowned with the stars: and_x000D_ perceive yourself to be the sole heir of the whole world, and more than_x000D_ so, because men and women are in it who are every one sole heirs as well_x000D_ as you. Till you can sing and rejoice and delight, as misers do in gold, and_x000D_ kings in scepters, you never enjoy the world.
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