Quotes about Compassion
The non-violent resistor not only avoids external, physical violence, but he avoids internal violence of spirit. He not only refuses to shoot his opponent, but he refuses to hate him. And he stands with understanding, goodwill at all times.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
I] know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind's problems....
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Everybody can be great; you only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
For you will never be what you ought to be until they [your fellow humans] are what they ought to be.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
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 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.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. And that's all I want to say.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
We must either learn to live together as brothers, or we are going to die together as fools.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
I've seen too much hate to want to hate, myself.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.