There comes a time when a moral man can't obey a law which his conscience tells him is unjust.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of personal conscience over blind obedience to unjust laws.
Martin Luther King, Jr. highlights a critical moment when an individual's moral compass must take precedence over adherence to laws deemed unjust. In this context, he advocates for standing up against societal norms that conflict with one's ethical beliefs, asserting that true morality sometimes requires civil disobedience.
In practice
A speaker at a civil rights rally can use this quote to inspire action against discriminatory laws.
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.
Giving anyone anything takes courage, since so many presents backfire. A gift conspicuously at odds with your tastes serves only to betray that the benefactor has no earthly clue who you are.
Now if I go through it again, I think I would be a lot more open about it. I admire people who have been open like Melissa Ethridge and women I see walking around facing it without wigs and all of that stuff. I think I would be more courageous next time.
Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.
Real men laugh at opposition; real men smile when enemies appear.
Now my eyes are turned from the South to the North, and I want to lead one more Expedition. This will be the last... to the North Pole.
Being senior enough in the field, having enough solidity, I don't feel afraid of being marginalized.
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