Quotes about Responsibility
As I went through this period one night I picked up an article entitled The Children of Vietnam, and I read it. And after reading that article, I said to myself, Never again will I be silent on an issue that is destroying the soul of our nation and destroying thousands and thousands of little children in Vietnam. I came to the conclusion that there is an existential moment in your life when you must decide to speak for yourself; nobody else can speak for you.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
the words of President Kennedy, uttered on June 11, 1963, only a few months before his tragic death: "We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the Scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution. The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities . . . Those who do nothing are inviting shame as well as violence. Those who act boldly are recognizing right as well as reality.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Even where the polls are open to all, Negroes have shown themselves too slow to exercise their voting privileges. There must be a concerted effort on the part of Negro leaders to arouse their people from their apathetic indifference to this obligation of citizenship. In the past, apathy was a moral failure. Today, it is a form of moral and political suicide.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
When religion becomes so involved in a future good over yonder that it forgets the present evils over here it is as dry as dust religion and needs to be condemned.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
most people, and Christians in particular, are thermometers that record or register the temperature of majority opinion, not thermostats that transform and regulate the temperature of society.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
No problem is solved when we idly wait for God to undertake full responsibility.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" And Vanity comes along and asks the question, "Is it popular?" But Conscience asks the question, "Is it right?
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Never must the church tire of reminding men that they have a moral responsibility to be intelligent.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation. No individual or nation can be great if it does not have a concern for the least of these.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.