Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Quote

"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 hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact,
violence merely increases hate.... Returning violence for
violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a
night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out hate;
only love can do that."

by:	Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) US civil rights leader
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Categories:	Fear, Freedom, Justice, Peace, Responsibility, Virtue, War, Liberty, Black, Violence
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-- Anonymous
-- Mike, Norwalk
Strange coming from a man who had self-proclaimed Communists on his staff...Did he truly believe what he preached?  -- Ben, Orem, UT
Tyrants, dictators and the like would love non-violent people. It's easy to do their thing without having to watch their back. Violence will die when life on this planet dies.  -- Tony D., Toronto
Ben, not so strange when you realize (which you probably have) that powerful wolves always where sheep's clothing and walk the walk and talk the talk. 5 stars for the intent.  -- Anon
Ben who were King's communists. I don't doublt you but I am interested to know who they were and what does that fact have to say about the meaning or truth of the quote.The blood feuds of the Middle East prove his point adequately. Violence results when two parties may not realize that there is a third way.  -- Waffler, Smith, Arkansas
I doubt that love would have prevailed when Pearl Harbor was bombed.  -- jim k, austin
There is nothing so moving and so powerful as an immense crowd gathered in non-violent protest. One rock, one bottle, one gun fired can put the entire cause at risk -- and a moment of silence of one million gathered is ... well, no words can express. In this day and age when local police forces are armed to the teeth like paramilitary, any violent uprising will escalate the violence. Live free or die -- that used to be the American maxim. Non-violent non-cooperation with 'evil' is a worthy endeavor. However, in the context of self-defense on one's own property or in defense of the country's borders, we must have available every weapon necessary to defend our family, neighbors, and country and use them when necessary. The aim of non-violent soultions to societal problems is good, but not at the expense of our right to defend ourselves with violent force if necessary. Even Gandhi condemned the disarmament of the Indian people by the British. In the end, if the citizen finds himself disarmed and subjugated, non-violent non-cooperation will bear better results than throwing stones and making threats.  -- E Archer, NYC      1
Thank you Archer, said very well.  -- Mike, Norwalk
Yeah, right Archer. That's why the first thing totalitarian regimes do is disarm the people. Non-violence never wins, just economic/exogenous factors win. Like the USSR, it collapsed because of the economy whereas, the US independence was violent, on the other hand. There's no instance where non-violence in itself has yielded positive results.  -- Tony D., Toronto
Tony apparently never heard of the results of the American Civil Rights Movement or of Indian independence under Ghandi or of Nelson Mandela.  -- Waffler, Smith, Arkansas
Waffler, it is always economics. The British Empire was too overstretched to keep the Indians under control, not enough money. It's always economics, that's why we fight wars, and the reason we make peace. That's history, if you want to learn from it, and escape the utopia. If there's not going to be violence and not feeling threatened why give up power. American Civil Rights movement wasn't without riots or threat of unrest. That costs economic resources. The media always discounts the violence and overwhelmingly praises non-violence. That's why Americans are going to endure (most probably are) an era of fascism, because the new generation is a product of the media, and through the media of the government. Watch MTV, everything gets done by flowers and kisses. You want to non-violently protest, you can go to "Free speech zones". Goebbels would envy you guys. May I remind you freedom is not free! And by that, I don't mean the war in Iraq or some fake wars your government sends you to die.  -- Tony D., Toronto
I love this quote!!! =D  -- Anonymous
Dr. King, Beautifully spoken. People always have neagtive things to say, but Mother Teresa said that you still have to love and be kind any way. so People keep doing your job and being negative about life. God Bless you!  -- Anonymous
Tony — just one of things to go hmmm. Examples of love and non-violence such as Jesus the Christ don't quite follow your comment's line of reasoning. Gandhi, and even the non-violent protestors of the Viet Nam war era qualified as making it easy for tyrants and dictators to do their thing.  -- Mike, Norwalk

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