We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear. That old law about "an eye for an eye" leaves everybody blind... The time is always right to do the right thing. Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
Interpretation
Courage allows us to confront our fears and work towards justice and peace in our lives.
This quote emphasizes the importance of courage in overcoming fear while advocating for justice and righteousness. It suggests that acting with courage and doing the right thing are crucial in achieving peace, rather than resorting to retaliation or violence, which only perpetuates blindness and suffering. King illustrates that peace should be seen as an integral part of the journey towards achieving a just society.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech advocating for social justice to inspire courage in activism.
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.
I still suffer terribly from stage fright. I get sick with fear. Not every night, but at the beginning and on occasion - not necessarily when I'm expecting it. You just have to cope with it - take it on the chin and work through it, trying to use the adrenalin to perform.
Seeing their children touched and seared and wounded by race prejudice is one of the heaviest crosses which colored women have to bear.
Strong men greet war, tempest, hard times. They wish, as Pindar said, to tread the floors of hell, with necessities as hard as iron.
To the predators... Weinstein, the stranger, the relative, the boyfriend... I say to you, 'You can choose your sin but you don't get to choose the consequences.' To the victims... I see you. I believe you... and I'm listening.
It never occurred to me that I was not going to challenge segregation.
The willow which bends to the tempest often escapes better than the oak which resists it.
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