Everything is Love

Strength to Love, by Martin Luther King, Jr., is an absolute must-read.  This is the first work I have read by MLK and I now plan to read every thing he has ever published.  Every sentence, every phrase is imbued with such gravitas, wisdom, and courage, and, the language is simply stunning.  Published in 1963, this is a collection of several of his sermons.  What I found most interesting was his utilization of theology to advocate for social justice.  Also, he used phrases like "military-industrial complex" and "psychosomatic" which I think of as phrases that may be more recently used in our parlance, so it is interesting that this language was utilized over 50 years ago.  Here are some of the passages that I found most striking:

Seldom are the humble self-assertive, or the self-assertive humble.  

There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions.  Nothing pains some people more than having to think.  

Moreover, we must learn that passively to accept an unjust system is to cooperate with that system, and thereby to become a participant in its evil.

We are called to be people of conviction, not conformity; of moral nobility, not social respectability.  

Many people fear nothing more terribly than to take a position which stands out sharply and clearly from the prevailing opinion.  

In any cause that concerns the progress of mankind, put your faith in the nonconformist!  

Nonconformity is creative when it is controlled and directed by a transformed life and is constructive when it embraces a new mental outlook.  

[Noncomformity] is always costly and never comfortable.

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.  

How often our lives are characterized by a high blood pressure of creeds and an anathema of deeds!  

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.  

The dawn will come.  Disappointment, sorrow, and despair are born at midnight, but morning follows.  

If man were to lose his capacity to fear, he would be deprived of his capacity to grow, invent and create.  So in a sense fear is normal, necessary and creative.  

Courage, therefore, is the power of the mind to overcome fear.  

Hatred confuses life, love harmonizes it.  Hatred darkens life, love illuminates it.