No man (sic) has learned to live until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. Length without breadth is like a self-contained tributary having no outward flow to the ocean. Stagnant, still and stale, it lacks both life and freshness. In order to live creatively and meaningfully, our self-concern must be wedded to other concerns.
Interpretation
True living comes from caring about others, not just oneself.
In this quote, Martin Luther King, Jr. emphasizes that a meaningful life transcends individual interests and embraces the broader responsibilities we have towards humanity. He illustrates the importance of connecting our personal lives with the needs of the community, likening a life focused only on self-interest to a stagnant water body that cannot sustain itself or contribute to the larger world.
In practice
In a speech about community service, this quote can inspire attendees to think beyond themselves.
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.
The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven't yet come to the end of themselves. We're still trying to give orders, and interfering with God's work within us.
Insight into universal nature provides an intellectual delight and sense of freedom that no blows of fate and no evil can destroy.
My falcon now is sharp and passing empty, and till she stoop she must not be full-gorged, for then she never looks upon her lure.
Nobody can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own.
Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
Instead of announcing what you are about to tell is interesting, make it so.
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