Martin Luther King citations célèbres
Discours de réception du prix Nobel de la paix, 1964
Discours de réception du prix Nobel de la paix, 1964
And it may well be that we will have to repent in this generation, not merely for the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people who would bomb a church in Birmingham, Alabama but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say wait on time.
en
Discours à l’université wesleyenne de l'Illinois, 1966
Martin Luther King: Citations en anglais
'Where Do We Go From Here?" as published in Where Do We Go from Here : Chaos or Community? (1967), p. 62; many statements in this book, or slight variants of them, were also part of his address Where Do We Go From Here?" which has a section below. A common variant appearing at least as early as 1968 has "Returning violence for violence multiplies violence..." An early version of the speech as published in A Martin Luther King Treasury (1964), p. 173, has : "Returning hate for hate multiplies hate..."
1960s
Source: A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches
Contexte: 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 may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. … Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
Variante: I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.”
1960s, The Trumpet of Conscience (1967)
Variante: In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”
Source: A Knock at Midnight: Inspiration from the Great Sermons of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars.”
Variante: Only in the darkness can you see the stars.
Contexte: But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars.
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
Source: I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World
Variante: Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You do not have to have a college degree to serve. You do not have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.
“A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.”
Variante: If a man hasn’t found something he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.
Source: The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
Source: 1960s, Strength to Love (1963), Ch. 4 : Love in action, Sct. 3
“Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.”
Variante: Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.
“You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.”
1960s, The Drum Major Instinct (1968)
Contexte: And so Jesus gave us a new norm of greatness. If you want to be important—wonderful. If you want to be recognized—wonderful. If you want to be great—wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That's a new definition of greatness. And this morning, the thing that I like about it: by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, (Everybody) because everybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.
Strength to Love, Chapter 7
1960s, Strength to Love (1963)
1950s, Loving Your Enemies (November 1957)
Contexte: I think the first reason that we should love our enemies, and I think this was at the very center of Jesus’ thinking, is this: that hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you back and you hit me back and go on, you see, that goes on ad infinitum. It just never ends. Somewhere somebody must have a little sense, and that’s the strong person. The strongperson is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil. And that is the tragedy of hate, that it doesn’t cut it off. It only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. Somebody must have religion enough and morality enough to cut it off and inject within the very structure of the universe that strong and powerful element of [[love].
1950s, Loving Your Enemies (Christmas 1957)
Contexte: Third we must not seek to defeat or humiliate the enemy but to win his friendship and understanding. At times we are able to humiliate our worst enemy. Inevitably, his weak moments come and we are able to thrust in his side the spear of defeat. But this we must not do. Every word and deed must contribute to an understanding with the enemy and release those vast reservoirs of goodwill which have been blocked by impenetrable walls of hate.
“Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.”
Strength to Love, Chapter 7
1960s, Strength to Love (1963)
Contexte: 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.
1960s, Letter from a Birmingham Jail (1963)
Variante: It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tired into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one destiny, affects all indirectly.
Source: Letter from the Birmingham Jail
Contexte: Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.
1950s, Loving Your Enemies (Christmas 1957)
Contexte: First, we must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. It is impossible even to begin the act of loving one's enemies without prior acceptance of the necessity, over and over again, of forgiving those who inflict evil and injury upon us. It is also necessary to realize that the forgiving act must always be initiated by the person who has been wronged, the victim of some great hurt, the recipient of some tortuous injustice, the absorber of some terrible act of oppression. The wrongdoer may request forgiveness. He may come to himself, and, like the prodigal son, move up with some dusty road, his heart palpitating with the desire for forgiveness. But only the injured neighbor, the loving father back home can really pour out the warm waters of forgiveness.
1960s, I've Been to the Mountaintop (1968)
Source: 1960s, Strength to Love (1963), Ch. 2 : Transformed nonconformist
“I have decided to stick to love… Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
Source: A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches
“Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase.”
Variante: Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.
Source: Let Nobody Turn Us Around: Voices on Resistance, Reform, and Renewal an African American Anthology
"Keep Moving from this Mountain" http://www5.spelman.edu/about_us/news/pdf/70622_messenger.pdf – Founders Day Address at the Sisters Chapel, Spelman College (11 April 1960)
1960s
“We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
1960s, A Christmas Sermon (1967)
Variante: We must either learn to live together as brothers or we are all going to perish together as fools.
