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Quotes from Strength to Love — Martin Luther King Jr.

1929–1968 United States

← All quotes by Martin Luther King Jr.

24 quotes

We must combine the toughness of the serpent with the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart.

Strength to Love (1963)

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Strength to Love (1963)

A nation or a civilization that continues to produce softminded men purchases its own spiritual death on an installment plan.

Strength to Love (1963)

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.

Strength to Love (1963)

First, Communism is based on a materialistic and humanistic view of life and history.

Strength to Love (1963)

But life at its best is a creative synthesis of opposites in fruitful harmony.

Strength to Love (1963)

The tough mind is sharp and penetrating, breaking through the crust of legends and myths and sifting the true from the false.

Strength to Love (1963)

The strong man holds in a living blend strongly marked opposites.

Strength to Love (1963)

Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals. They are complementary.

Strength to Love (1963)

Lying, violence, murder, and torture are considered to be justifiable means to achieve the millennial end.

Strength to Love (1963)

Jesus recognized the need for blending opposites.

Strength to Love (1963)

The greatness of our God lies in the fact that He is both toughminded and tenderhearted.

Strength to Love (1963)

Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.

Strength to Love (1963)

Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.

Strength to Love (1963)

Man is more than a producing animal guided by economic forces; he is a being of spirit, crowned with glory and honor, endowed with the gift of freedom.

Strength to Love (1963)

Any Christian who blindly accepts the opinions of the majority and in fear and timidity follows a path of expediency and social approval is a mental and spiritual slave.

Strength to Love (1963)

Man is a means to that end. Man has no inalienable rights. His only rights are derived from, and conferred by, the state. Under such a system, the fountain of freedom runs dry.

Strength to Love (1963)

The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state.

Strength to Love (1963)

The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided man.

Strength to Love (1963)

In spite of its glowing talk about the welfare of the masses, Communism's methods and philosophy strip man of his dignity and worth, leaving him as little more than a depersonalized cog in the ever-turning wheel of the state.

Strength to Love (1963)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Martin Luther King Jr. (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.