Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes About Hatred
-
We may win a battle, but if in doing so we have planted thousands of seeds of hatred and fear..the war is not over- only the present conflict has ceased. There will be no peace as long as we react to violence with violence.
→ -
I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.
→ -
The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
→ -
Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.
→ -
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
→ -
One who condones evils is just as guilty as the one who perpetrates it.
→ -
Hatred darkens life; love illumines it.
→ -
We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.
→ -
When a nation becomes obsessed with the guns of war, it loses its social perspective.... There is something about a war like this that makes people insensitive. It dulls the conscience. It strengthens the forces of reaction, and it brings into being bitterness and hatred and violence.
→ -
In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.
→ -
Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it.
→ -
The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate... Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
→ -
A second way that oppressed people sometimes deal with oppression is to resort to physical violence and corroding hatred.
→ -
He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.
→ -
Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love.
→ -
When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love.
→ -
I cannot make myself believe that God wanted me to hate. I'm tired of violence, I've seen too much of it. I've seen such hate on the faces of too many sheriffs in the South. And I'm not going to let my oppressor dictate to me what method I must use. Our oppressors have used violence. Our oppressors have used hatred. Our oppressors have used rifles and guns. I'm not going to stoop down to their level. I want to rise to a higher level. We have a power that can't be found in Molotov cocktails.
→ -
Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.
→ -
Hatred and bitterness can never cure the disease of fear; only love can do that. Hatred paralyzes life; love harmonies it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.
→ -
There is some good in the worst of us, and some evil in the best of us.
→ -
By...our readiness to allow arms to be purchased at will and fired at whim; by allowing our movie and television screens to teach our children that the hero is one who masters the art of shooting and the technique of killing...we have created an atmosphere in which violence and hatred have become popular pastimes.
→ -
We've been in the mountain of war. We've been in the mountain of violence. We've been in the mountain of hatred long enough. It is necessary to move on now, but only by moving out of this mountain can we move to the promised land of justice and brotherhood and the Kingdom of God. It all boils down to the fact that we must never allow ourselves to become satisfied with unattained goals. We must always maintain a kind of divine discontent.
→ -
It's very easy for one talking about violence and hatred for the white man to appeal to [Negro from ghetto]. I have never thought of this, but I think this is quite true, that if, even if you talk to them about nonviolence from a tactical point of view, they can't quite see it because they don't even know they're outnumbered.
→ -
Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity.
→ -
This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. Our planet teeters on the brink of annihilation; dangerous passions of pride, hatred, and selfishness are enthroned in our lives; and men do reverence before false gods of nationalism and materialism. The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority.
→ -
Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
→ -
Through violence, you may murder the hater, but you do not murder the hate.
→ -
The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.
→ -
World peace through nonviolent means is neither absurd nor unattainable. All other methods have failed. Thus we must begin anew. Nonviolence is a good starting point. Those of us who believe in this method can be voices of reason, sanity, and understanding amid the voices of violence, hatred, and emotion. We can very well set a mood of peace out of which a system of peace can be built.
→ -
Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.
→
Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Born: January 15, 1929
- Died: April 4, 1968
- Occupation: Civil rights activist
Related Authors
-
Barack Obama 44th U.S. President -
Mahatma Gandhi Civil rights leader -
Martin Lawrence Actor -
Yolanda King Activist -
Malcolm X Human rights activist -
Rosa Parks Activist -
Jackie Robinson Baseball player -
-
Coretta Scott King Author -
Mother Teresa Saint -
John F. Kennedy 35th U.S. President -
Lyndon B. Johnson 36th U.S. President -
Martin Luther Monk -
George Washington 1st U.S. President -
Abraham Lincoln 16th U.S. President -
Martin Luther King III Advocate -
David Oyelowo Actor -
Bernice King Minister -
Nelson Mandela Former President of South Africa -
Harriet Tubman Activist