(1) Use what you have. Don’t worry about others. Discover what you have and what you can do.
(2) After you have discoved what you are made for, seek to do it with all the power there is in your system. Do it as if God ordained you to do it. Let nothing cause you to lose sight of your ultimate aim. Use the will of Jesus.
(3) Never consider you life’s work insignificant.
(4) Set yourself earnestly to see what you were made to do, and then set yourself earnestly to do it. This clear onward push the the end is the length of a man’s life. — rough notes from MLK, “The Dimensions of a Complete Life,” Sermon at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
Daily quotes from the Drum Major
The Negroes of Montgomery seem to have taken a lesson from Gandhi — and our own Thoreau, who influenced Gandhi…It is hard to imagine a soul so dead, a heart so hard, a vision so blinded and provincial as not to be moved with admiration to the quiet dignity, discipline, and dedication with which the Negroes have conducted their boycott. — MLK, Tell It To Old Grandma, “Lesson From Gandhi”
And before the victory for brotherhood is won, some will have to get scarred up a bit. Before the victory is won, some more will be thrown into jail. Before the victory is won, some, like Medgar Evers, may have to face physical death. But if physical death is the price that some must pay to free their children and their white brothers from an eternal psychological death, then nothing can be more redemptive. Before the victory is won, some will be misunderstood and called bad names, but we must go on with a determination and with a faith that this problem can be solved. – MLK, Speech at the Great March on Detroit
…is a threat to justice everywhere.– MLK, Speech at the Great March on Detroit
God is interested in the freedom of the whole human race. And I believe that with this philosophy and this determined struggle we will be able to go on in the days ahead and transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. – MLK, Speech at the Great March on Detroit
We are coming to see now, the psychiatrists are saying to us, that many of the strange things that happen in the subconscience, many of the inner conflicts, are rooted in hate. And so they are saying, “Love or perish.” But Jesus told us this a long time ago. And I can still hear that voice crying through the vista of time, saying, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you.” And there is still a voice saying to every potential Peter, “Put up your sword.” History is replete with the bleached bones of nations, history is cluttered with the wreckage of communities that failed to follow this command. And isn’t it marvelous to have a method of struggle where it is possible to stand up against an unjust system, fight it with all of your might, never accept it, and yet not stoop to violence and hatred in the process? This is what we have.
– MLK, Speech at the Great March on Detroit
It calls on them to engage in that something called love. And I know it is difficult sometimes. When I say “love” at this point, I’m not talking about an affectionate emotion. It’s nonsense to urge people, oppressed people, to love their oppressors in an affectionate sense. I’m talking about something much deeper. I’m talking about a sort of understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill for all men. – MLK, Speech at the Great March on Detroit
We’ve come to see the power of nonviolence. We’ve come to see that this method is not a weak method, for it’s the strong man who can stand up amid opposition, who can stand up amid violence being inflicted upon him and not retaliate with violence.
You see, this method has a way of disarming the opponent. It exposes his moral defenses. It weakens his morale, and at the same time it works on his conscience, and he just doesn’t know what to do. If he doesn’t beat you, wonderful. If he beats you, you develop the quiet courage of accepting blows without retaliating. If he doesn’t put you in jail, wonderful. Nobody with any sense likes to go to jail. But if he puts you in jail, you go in that jail and transform it from a dungeon of shame to a haven of freedom and human dignity. And even if he tries to kill you, you’ll develop the inner conviction that there are some things so dear, some things so precious, some things so eternally true, that they are worth dying for. And I submit to you that if a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.
– MLK, Speech at the Great March on Detroit
Now is the time to transform this pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our nation. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of racial justice. – MLK, Speech at the Great March on Detroit
We still hear these cries. They are telling us over and over again that you’re pushing things too fast, and so they’re saying, “Cool off.” Well, the only answer that we can give to that is that we’ve cooled off all too long, and that is the danger.There’s always the danger if you cool off too much that you will end up in a deep freeze. “Well,” they’re saying, “you need to put on brakes.” The only answer that we can give to that is that the motor’s now cranked up and we’re moving up the highway of freedom toward the city of equality, and we can’t afford to stop now because our nation has a date with destiny. We must keep moving.– MLK, Speech at the Great March on Detroit
