On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' And Vanity comes along and asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But Conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?'
Interpretation
The quote highlights the importance of conscience over fear, expediency, and vanity in decision-making.
Martin Luther King Jr. emphasizes that in various situations, individuals often face different motivations for their choices. While cowardice seeks comfort and safety, expediency focuses on political advantage, and vanity considers popularity, it is ultimately our conscience that should guide us to determine what is morally right. This quote serves as a reminder to prioritize ethical principles over societal pressures.
In practice
During a team meeting about project decisions, one can use this quote to emphasize the need for ethical considerations.
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.
Fugitive slaves were rare then, and as a fugitive slave lecturer, I had the advantage of being the first one out.
Where you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out, because this is your country. This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on.
My spirit is as strong as ever. I'm still fighting to make the world a safer place, and you can, too.
Crooked Warden, I will fear no darkness for the night is yours," muttered Locke, pointing the first two fingers of his left hand into the darkness. The Dagger of the Thirteenth, a thief's gesture against evil. "Your night is my cloak, my shield, my escape from those who hunt to feed the noose. I will fear no evil, for you have made the night my friend." "Bless the Benefactor," said Jean, squeezing Locke's left forearm. "Peace and profit to his children.
Do not yield to misfortunes, but advance more boldly to meet them, as your fortune permits you.
I will remember what I was, I am sick of rope and chains - I will remember my old strength and all my forest affairs. I will not sell my back to man for a bundle of sugar cane; I will go out to my own kind, and the wood-folk in their lairs. I will go out until the day, until the morning break - Out to the wind's untainted kiss, the water's clean caress; I will forget my ankle-ring and snap my picket stake. I will revisit my lost love and playmates masterless!
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.