There is a power in love that our world has not discovered yet. Jesus discovered it centuries ago. Mahatma Gandhi of India discovered it a few years ago, but most men and most women never discover it. For they believe in hitting for hitting; they believe in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; they believe in hating for hating; but Jesus comes to us and says, 'This isn't the way.'
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the transformative and powerful nature of love, which many people fail to recognize and embrace.
In this quote, Martin Luther King, Jr. highlights the profound and often overlooked power of love, suggesting that it is a force capable of bringing about significant change and understanding in the world. He contrasts this with the common human inclination to respond to negativity with more negativity, advocating for Jesus' teachings that emphasize love over retaliation and hatred, thereby calling for a more compassionate approach to conflict.
In practice
In a speech about social justice, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of choosing love over hate.
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.
All days are nights to see till I see thee, And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.
Have only love in your heart for others. The more you see the good in them, the more you will establish good in yourself.
So I find every pleasant spot In which we two were wont to meet, The field, the chamber, and the street, For all is dark where thou art not
What if sometimes there is no choice about what to love? What if the temple comes to Mohammed? What if you just love? without deciding? You just do: you see her and in that instant are lost to sober account-keeping and cannot choose but to love?
Maybe the poets are right. Maybe love is the only answer.
I watched her departure, as one watches a sunset. She went like a radiance through the dark wood, which was henceforth bright to me, from simply knowing that such a creature was in it.
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