On some positions, cowardice asks the question, is it expedient? And then expedience comes along and asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? Conscience asks the question, is it right? There comes a time when one must take the position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must do it because conscience tells him it is right.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of following one's conscience over social or personal conveniences.
In this quote, Martin Luther King, Jr. highlights the conflict between cowardice, expedience, vanity, and conscience. He warns that while it may be tempting to choose a path that is safer, more acceptable, or more popular, true morality often requires us to act in accordance with our conscience, even when it is difficult or goes against popular opinion. It is a call to courage in standing up for what is right, regardless of the personal cost.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about ethical leadership.
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.
Honor to the soldier and sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his country's cause. Honor, also, to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field and serves, as he best can, the same cause.
I still remember the days, not wanting to see anybody, not wanting to talk to anybody, really not wanting to live. I was on an express elevator to the bottom floor, wherever that might be.
It was very bad if the council had resorted to recruiting men. By tradition men were our last line of defence, their physical strength bent towards the single and most important task of protecting our homes and children. This meant the council had decided that our only defence was to defeat the enemy, period. Anything else meant the end of Darre.
Capture of Nanking Rain and a windstorm rage blue and yellow over Chung the bell mountain as a million peerless troops cross the Great River. The peak is a coiled dragon, the city a crouching tiger more dazzling than before. The sky is spinning and the earth upside down. We are elated yet we must use our courage to chase the hopeless enemy. We must not stoop to fame like the overlord Hsiang Yu. If heaven has feeling it will grow old and watch our seas turn into mulberry fields.
Ali’s got a left, Ali’s got a right, if he hits you once, you’re asleep for the night
Long live all us crazy soldiers _x000D_ _x000D_ Who were born under calico skies _x000D_ _x000D_ May we never be called to handle _x000D_ _x000D_ All the weapons of war we despise
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.