From time to time, I like to record either thoughts on reading a real paper book (yes they do still exist and get opened from time to time!) or some stirling quotes.
In recent months I have done this with Winston Churchill by Roy Jenkins– a truly great biography of a truly great man. I also put together some quote from Does the future have a church? a book by Terry Virgo
So here goes with an overdue post of excepts from the MLK autobiography which I would commend as a good read. More quotes, and Audio Clips from Martyn Luther King’s speeches are available from Stanford.
On leadership
‘it was an inner urge calling me to serve humanity’ p13
‘A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus…..I would rather be a man of conviction than a man of conformity.’p331
‘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?’ p342
‘I guess one of the great agonies of life is that we are constantly trying to finish that which is unfinishable’ p 356
On non violent protesting
‘I became convinced that nonco-operation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is co-operation with good.’p14
‘The oppressor never voluntarily gives freedom to the oppressed. You have to work for it. Freedom is never given to anybody. Priviledged classes never give up their priviledges without strong resistance.’ p111
‘The world doesnt like people like Ghandi’ p132
On community
‘Capitalism is always in danger of inspiring men to be more concerned about making a living than making a life. We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles, rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to humanity’p21
On the poor
‘We spend more than a million dollars a day to store surplus food in this country. I said to myself ‘I know where we can store that food free of charge- in the wrinkled stomachs or the millions of people who go to bed hungry at night’p124
About the good samaritan- the priest and levite asked the question ‘If I stop and help this man, what will happen to me?’ The good samaritan asked instead ‘If I do not stop to help this man what will happen to him?’ p363
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