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To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Ignoring wrongdoing allows it to persist and grow.

This quote by Martin Luther King, Jr. emphasizes the moral responsibility individuals have to acknowledge and confront evil. By choosing to ignore injustices happening around us, we inadvertently support and enable them, thus failing to uphold our collective ethical standards and social justice.

Themes

EvilAccompliceJusticeResponsibilityAction

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech advocating for social justice, one might say this quote to highlight the importance of speaking out against inequality.

More from Martin Luther King, Jr.

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.
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Quote by Martin Luther King, Jr. | QuoteProject