The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be... The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of choosing the type of extremism we embrace in society.
Martin Luther King Jr. suggests that every individual will adopt extreme beliefs or actions at some point. However, he stresses that it is crucial to deliberate on the nature of these extremisms, advocating for those that promote creativity and positive change, rather than destructive or negative extremism. This is especially relevant as the world grapples with various social challenges, highlighting a need for passionate and transformative leadership.
In practice
In a speech about social justice, you might use this quote to encourage people to embrace positive change.
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 true stories begin and end in a cemetery" - The Shadow of the Wind
People lose fifty million skin cells every day. The cells get scraped off and turn into invisible dust, and disappear into the air. Maybe we are nothing but skin cells as far as the world is concerned.
What is life but a series of inspired follies.
Some people think God does not like to be troubled with our constant coming and asking. The way to trouble God is not to come at all.
I haven't any language weak enough to depict the weakness of my spiritual life. If I weakened it enough it would cease to be language at all. As when you try to turn the gas-ring a little lower still, and it merely goes out.
There are nuclear-weapons-free zones in several parts of the world already, except that they're not implemented fully, because the U.S. won't allow it.
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