January 17, 2005

• The List on the Left (so to speak)

  
  

  A fitting follow up to my last blog, on this important holiday, is to present the thoughts of those who embody the list on the left (from that blog), who embody the cause of God, the teachings of Jesus, and of Good.

  
  

  To that end, here are quotes worth (re)reading at least once a year.

  
  

  I am convinced that love is the most durable power in the world. It is not an expression of impractical idealism, but of practical realism. Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, love is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization. To return hate for hate does nothing but intensify the existence of evil in the universe. Someone must have sense enough and religion enough to cut off the chain of hate and evil, and this can only be done through love.
  --Martin Luther King, Jr., 1957

  
  

  Love is creative and redemptive. Love builds up and unites; hate tears down and destroys. The aftermath of the 'fight with fire' method … is bitterness and chaos, the aftermath of the love method is reconciliation. --Martin Luther King, Jr., 1957

  
  

  I believe that it is impossible to end hatred with hatred.
  -- Mahatma Gandhi 23rd November, 1924

  
  

  The survival of democracy depends on the renunciation of violence and the development of nonviolent means to combat evil and advance the good.
  --A.J. Muste

  
  

  I do believe that when there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence... I would rather have India resort to arms in order to defend her honor than that she should in a cowardly manner become or remain a helpless victim of her own dishonor. But I believe that non-violence is infinitely superior to violence, forgiveness is more manly than punishment... Let me not be misunderstood. Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
  --Mahatma Gandhi, 1920

  
  

  I said to my children, 'I'm going to work and do everything that I can do to see that you get a good education. I don't ever want you to forget that there are millions of God's children who will not and cannot get a good education, and I don't want you feeling that you are better than they are. For you will never be what you ought to be until they are what they ought to be.'
  -- Martin Luther King, Jr. , 7th January, 1968

  
  

  We are not wrong in what we are doing. If we are wrong, the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong. If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong. If we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong. If we are wrong, Jesus of Nazareth was merely a utopian dreamer that never came down to earth. And we are determined here is Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.
  --Martin Luther King, Jr., 5th December 1955

  
  

  "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government."
  Martin Luther King,  April 4, 1967

  
  

  Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict, we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on.
  Martin Luther King,  April 4, 1967

  
  

   

  • 3:42 pm
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