I am convinced that love is the most durable power in the world. It is not an expression of impractical idealism, but of practical realism. Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, love is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization. To return hate for hate does nothing but intensify the existence of evil in the universe. Someone must have sense enough and religion enough to cut off the chain of hate and evil, and this can only be done through love.
Interpretation
Love is a powerful and essential force for societal survival and overcoming negativity.
In this quote, Martin Luther King, Jr. emphasizes the profound and enduring nature of love, asserting that it is not merely an unrealistic ideal but a practical necessity for humanity. He argues that love serves as a counterforce against hate and evil, suggesting that the only way to break the cycle of hatred is through the conscious choice to love, which is vital for the survival and progress of civilization.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of compassion in modern society.
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.
You don't need to justify your love, you don't need to explain your love, you just need to practice your love. Practice creates the master.
Godlike the man who_x000D_ sits at her side, who_x000D_ watches and catches_x000D_ that laughter_x000D_ which (softly) tears me_x000D_ to tatters: nothing is left of me, each time_x000D_ I see her.
There is no harvest for the heart alone. The seed of love must be eternally re-sown.
I will not live an instant that I do not live in love. Whoever loves does all things without suffering, or, suffering, loves his suffering.
It's a form of human love to accept our complicated, messy humanity and not run away from it.
Though I am old with wandering Through hollow lands and hilly lands, I will find out where she has gone, And kiss her lips and take her hands; And walk among long dappled grass, And pluck till time and times are done The silver apples of the moon, The golden apples of the sun.
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