Martin Luther King cytaty (683 cytatów, strona 16)

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. (ang.)
Źródło: Strength to Love, 1963.

O zachowaniu , O czasie

„Zrób pierwszy krok w wierze. Nie musisz widzieć całej drogi. Po prostu zrób pierwszy krok.”

Martin Luther King

Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step. (ang.)

O wierze

„Bunt jest językiem niewysłuchanych.”

Martin Luther King

A riot is the language of the unheard. (ang.)
Źródło: All Labor Has Dignity, red. Michael K. Honey, Beacon Press, Boston 1963, s. 159.

„Marzę, iż pewnego dnia ten naród powstanie, aby żyć wedle prawdziwego znaczenia swego credo: „uważamy za prawdę oczywistą, że wszyscy ludzie zostali stworzeni równymi”.
Marzę, że pewnego dnia na czerwonych wzgórzach Georgii synowie dawnych niewolników i synowie dawnych właścicieli niewolników będą mogli zasiąść razem przy braterskim stole. (…)
Marzę, iż pewnego dnia moich czworo dzieci będzie żyło wśród narodu, w którym ludzi nie osądza się na podstawie koloru ich skóry, ale na podstawie tego, jacy są.”

Martin Luther King

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. (…)
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. (ang.)
wygłoszone 28 sierpnia 1963 na wiecu w Waszyngtonie.
Źródło: americanrhetoric.com/speeches http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

O dzieciach , O ludziach , O snach

„Ten kto biernie akceptuje zło, jest za nie tak samo odpowiedzialny jak ten, co je popełnia.”

Martin Luther King

O złu

„Nigdy nie zapominaj, że wszystko, co Hitler uczynił w Niemczech, było legalne.”

Martin Luther King

Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal. (ang.)

O zapominaniu

„Nauczyliśmy się fruwać niczym ptaki na niebie, pływać jak ryby w morzach, ale nie nauczyliśmy się tej prostej sztuki, by żyć ze sobą jak bracia.”

Martin Luther King

We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers. (ang.)
Źródło: Strenght to Love, 1963

O ptakach , O rybach

„Znamy upokorzenia, znamy obraźliwy język, zepchnięto nas w otchłań opresji. I zdecydowaliśmy się podnieść, czyniąc protest naszą jedyną bronią. To, że mamy prawo do protestu, przysparza Ameryce ogromnej chwały.
Nawet jeśli codziennie jesteśmy zatrzymywani, wykorzystywani, deptani, to nigdy nie pozwólmy nikomu sprawić, że upadniemy tak nisko, by zacząć go nienawidzić. Musimy użyć oręża miłości. Musimy współczuć tym, którzy nas nienawidzą, i być dla nich wyrozumiali. Musimy uświadomić sobie, że wielu z nich nauczono, by nas nienawidzili, i że ludzie ci nie są w pełni odpowiedzialni za swoją nienawiść. Lecz w naszym życiu stoimy u progu dnia, jesteśmy zawsze tuż przed świtem.”

Martin Luther King

w 1956, przemawiając w Montgomery w Alabamie.
Źródło: Howard Zinn, Ludowa historia Stanów Zjednoczonych. Od roku 1492 do dziś, tłum. Andrzej Wojtasik, Wyd. Krytyki Politycznej, Warszawa 2016, s. 585.

O nienawiści , O ludziach , O historii

„Jeśli ktokolwiek z was będzie w pobliżu, gdy dożyję swoich dni, wiedzcie, że nie chcę długiego pogrzebu, a jeśli ktoś ma wygłosić mowę, powiedzcie mu, by nie mówił zbyt długo. Powiedzcie mu, by nie wspominał o pokojowej Nagrodzie Nobla - to nie jest istotne. (…) Chciałbym, żeby ktoś wspomniał o dniu, w którym Martin Luther King Jr. próbował oddać swoje życie, służąc innym. Chciałbym, by powiedziano, że tego dnia Martin Luther King Jr. próbował kogoś kochać.”

Martin Luther King

Źródło: Marzenie Luthera Kinga http://www.newsweek.pl/felietony/marzenie-luthera-kinga,13106,1,1.html, newsweek.pl, 31 października 2006

Kochać się , O życiu

To tłumaczenie czeka na recenzję. Czy to jest poprawne?

„Teraz nieuchronnie powstanie pytanie: jak więc pokonać egoizm?”

Martin Luther King

Pytanie , O egoiźmie

To tłumaczenie czeka na recenzję. Czy to jest poprawne?

„Człowiek, który nie ma niczego, za co mógłby umrzeć, nie nadaje się do życia.”

Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King: Cytaty po angielsku

“There are two kinds of laws: man's and God's. A man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God, is a just law. But a man-made code that is inharmonious with the moral law is an unjust law. And an unjust law, as St. Augustine said, is no law at all. Thus a law that is unjust is morally null and void, and must be defied until it is legally null and void as well. Let us not forget, in the memories of 6,000,000 who died, that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’, and that everything the Freedom Fighters in Hungary did was ‘illegal.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

Interview in Playboy (January 1965) https://web.archive.org/web/20080706183244/http://www.playboy.com/arts-entertainment/features/mlk/04.html
1960s

“And then the final great tragedy of the distorted personality is the fact that when one fails to harness this instinct, he ends up trying to push others down in order to push himself up. And whenever you do that, you engage in some of the most vicious activities. You will spread evil, vicious, lying gossip on people, because you are trying to pull them down in order to push yourself up. And the great issue of life is to harness the drum major instinct.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

1960s, The Drum Major Instinct (1968)

“Living with the conditions of slavery and then later segregation, many Negroes lost faith in themselves. Many came to feel that perhaps they were less than human, perhaps they were inferior. But then something happened to the Negro. Circumstances made it possible and necessary for him to travel more. The coming of the automobile, the upheavals of two world wars, the great depression. So his rural plantation background gradually gave way to urban industrial life. His economic life was gradually rising and even his cultural life was gradually rising through the steady decline of crippling illiteracy. All of these forces conjoined to cause the Negro to take a new look at himself. His religion revealed to him that God loves all of his children and that all men are made in His image. That the basic thing about a man is not his specificity but his fundamental. Not the texture of his hair or the color of his skin but his eternal dignity and worth.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Social Justice and the Emerging New Age" address at the Herman W. Read Fieldhouse, Western Michigan University (18 December 1963)
1960s

“I feel that this way of non-violence is vital because it is the only way to reestablish the broken community. It is the method which seeks to implement the just law by appealing to the conscience of the great decent majority who through blindness, fear, pride or irrationality have allowed their consciences to sleep.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

1960s, The Rising Tide of Racial Consciousnes (1960)

“I know you are asking today, "How long will it take?" Somebody's asking, "How long will prejudice blind the visions of men, darken their understanding, and drive bright-eyed wisdom from her sacred throne?" Somebody's asking, "When will wounded justice, lying prostrate on the streets of Selma and Birmingham and communities all over the South, be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men?" Somebody's asking, "When will the radiant star of hope be plunged against the nocturnal bosom of this lonely night, plucked from weary souls with chains of fear and the manacles of death? How long will justice be crucified, and truth bear it?" I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because "truth crushed to earth will rise again." How long? Not long, because "no lie can live forever."”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

How long? Not long, because "you shall reap what you sow."
1960s, How Long, Not Long (1965)

“Today the poor are less often dismissed, I hope, from our consciences by being branded as inferior or incompetent. We also know that no matter how dynamically the economy develops and expands, it does not eliminate all poverty.
The problem indicates that our emphasis must be twofold. We must create full employment or we must create incomes. People must be made consumers by one method or the other. Once they are placed in this position we need to be concerned that the potential of the individual is not wasted. New forms of work that enhance the social good will have to be devised for those for whom traditional jobs are not available.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

1960s, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)

“Negroes are not the only poor in the nation. There are nearly twice as many white poor as Negro, and therefore the struggle against poverty is not involved solely with color or racial discrimination but with elementary economic justice….”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

1960s, Address to Local 815, Teamsters and the Allied Trades Council (1967)

“I’m sure you have seen people in life who are so desirous of gaining attention that if they cannot have and gain attention through normal channels, through normal social channels, they will gain it through anti-social means. […] They are so selfcentered that they must gain attention and they must be seen in order to survive. They want to be admired and in their quest for admiration, they don’t gain it and in their failure to gain it, they become frustrated and bewildered and disillusioned. Also, it leads to extreme sensitiveness.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

1950s, Conquering Self-centeredness (1957)

“Go out and be assured that that God is going to last forever. Storms might come and go. Our great skyscraping buildings will come and go. Our beautiful automobiles will come and go, but God will be here. Plants may wither, the flowers may fade away, but the word of our God shall stand forever and nothing can ever stop him. All of the P-38s in the world can never reach God. All of our atomic bombs can never reach him. The God that I'm talking about this morning is the God of the universe and the God that will last through the ages. If we are to go forward this morning, we've got to go back and find that God. That is the God that demands and commands our ultimate allegiance.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

1950s, Rediscovering Lost Values (1954)

“An individual gets away from this type of self-centeredness when he pauses enough to see that no matter what he does in life, he does that because somebody helped him to do it. And he then gains the type of perspective and the type of balance which keeps him from becoming self-centered. He comes to see that somebody stands in the background, often doing a little job in a big way, making it possible for him to do what he’s doing.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

1950s, Conquering Self-centeredness (1957)

“When confronted by midnight in the social order we have in the past turned to science for help. And little wonder! On so many occasions science has saved us. When we were in the midnight of physical limitation and material inconvenience, science lifted us to the bright morning of physical and material comfort. When we were in the midnight of crippling ignorance and superstition, science brought us to the daybreak of the free and open mind. When we were in the midnight of dread plagues and diseases, science, through surgery, sanitation, and the wonder drugs, ushered in the bright day of physical health, thereby prolonging our lives and making for greater security and physical well-being. How naturally we turn to science in a day when the problems of the world are so ghastly and ominous. But alas! science cannot now rescue us, for even the scientist is lost in the terrible midnight of our age. Indeed, science gave us the very instruments that threaten to bring universal suicide.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

A Knock on Midnight http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/multimediaentry/doc_a_knock_at_midnight/
1960s, Strength to Love (1963)

“Christ came to show us the way. Men love darkness rather than the light, and they crucified Him, and there on Good Friday on the Cross it was still dark, bu the Easter came, and Easter is an eternal reminder of the fat that the truth-crushed [to] earth will rise again.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

1960s, A Christmas Sermon (1967)

“If physical death is the price that some must pay to free their children and their white brothers from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

1960s, Keep Moving From This Mountain (1965)

“The problem is deep. It is gigantic in extent, and chaotic in detail. And I do not believe that it will be solved until there is a kind of cosmic discontent enlarging in the bosoms of people of good will all over this nation.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

1960s, The Role of the Behavioral Scientist in the Civil Rights Movement (1967)

“And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond in compassion, my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. I speak not now of the soldiers of each side, not of military government in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them too because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution until some attempt is made to know these people and hear their broken cries. Now let me tell you the truth about it. They must see Americans as strange liberators. Do you realize that the Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence in 1945, after a combined French and Japanese occupation. And incidentally, this was before the communist revolution in China. They were led by Ho Chi Minh. And this is a little known fact, these people declared themselves independent in 1945, they quoted our Declaration of Independence in their document of freedom. And yet our government refused to recognize, President Truman said they were not ready for independence. So we failed victim as a nation at that time of the same deadly arrogance that has poisoned the international situation for all of these years. France then set out to reconquer its former colony. And they fought eight long, hard, brutal years, trying to reconquer Vietnam. You know who helped France? It was the United States of America, it came to the point that we were meeting more than 80% of the war cost. And even when France started despairing of its reckless action, we did not. And in 1954, a conference was called at Geneva, and an agreement was reached, because France had been defeated at Dien Bien Phu. But even after that and even after the Geneva Accord, we did not stop. We must face the sad fact that our government sought in a real sense to sabotage the Geneva Accord. Well, after the French were defeated, it looked as if independence and land reform would come through the Geneva agreement. But instead the United States came and started supporting a man named Diem, who turned out to be one of the most ruthless dictators in the history of the world. He set out to silence all opposition, people were brutally murdered merely because they raised their voices against the brutal policies of Diem. And the peasants watched and cringed as Diem ruthlessly rooted out all opposition. The peasants watched as all this was presided over by United States influence, and then by increasing numbers of United States troops, who came to help quell the insurgency that Diem's methods had aroused. When Diem was overthrown they may have been happy, but the long line of military dictatorships seemed to offer no real change, especially in terms of their need for land and peace. And who are we supporting in Vietnam today? It's a man by the name of General Ky, who fought with the French against his own people, and who said on one occasion that the greatest hero of his life is Hitler. This is who we're supporting in Vietnam today. Oh, our government, and the press generally, won't tell us these things, but God told me to tell you this morning. The truth must be told.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

1960s, Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam (1967)

“I would like to take your minds back many, many centuries into a familiar experience so significantly recorded in the sacred Scriptures. The Children of Israel had been reduced into the bondage of physical slavery… three groups of people emerged. One group said in substance that "We would rather go back to Egypt." They preferred the flush parts of Egypt to the challenges of the Promised Land. A second group that abhorred the idea of going back to Egypt, and yet they abhorred the idea of facing the difficulties of moving ahead to the Promised Land and they somehow wanted to remain stationary and choose the line of least resistance. There was a third group, probably influenced by Caleb and Joshua who had gone over to spy a bit and who admitted that there were giants in the land but who said, "We can possess the land."”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

This group said in substance that "We will go on in spite of...," that "We will not allow anything to stop us," that "We will move on amid the difficulties, amid the trials, amid the tribulations."
1960s, Keep Moving From This Mountain (1965)

“We come humbly to say to the men in the forefront of our government that the civil rights issue is not an Ephemeral, evanescent domestic issue that can be kicked about by reactionary guardians of the status quo; it is rather an eternal moral issue which may well determine the destiny of our nation in the ideological struggle with communism. The hour is late. The clock of destiny is ticking out. We must act now, before it is too late.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

1950s, Give Us the Ballot (1957)

“I had grown up in the church, and the church meant something very real to me, but it was a kind of inherited religion and I had never felt an experience with God in the way that you must have it if you're going to walk the lonely paths of this life.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

1960s, Why Jesus Called A Man A Fool (1967)

“[…] the drum major instinct is real. And you know what else it causes to happen? It often causes us to live above our means.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

1960s, The Drum Major Instinct (1968)

“[N]o matter where you stand, no matter how much popularity you have, no matter how much education you have, no matter how much money you have, you have it because somebody in this universe helped you to get it. And when you see that, you can’t be arrogant, you can’t be supercilious. You discover that you have your position because of the events of history and because of individuals in the background making it possible for you to stand there.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

1950s, Conquering Self-centeredness (1957)

“Recently, the press has been filled with reports of sightings of flying saucers. While we need not give credence to these stories, they allow our imagination to speculate on how visitors from outer space would judge us. I am afraid they would be stupefied at our conduct. They would observe that for death planning we spend billions to create engines and strategies for war. They would also observe that we spend millions to prevent death by disease and other causes. Finally they would observe that we spend paltry sums for population planning, even though its spontaneous growth is an urgent threat to life on our planet. Our visitors from outer space could be forgiven if they reported home that our planet is inhabited by a race of insane men whose future is bleak and uncertain.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

1960s, Family Planning - A Special and Urgent Concern (1966)

“This is where we are. Where do we go from here? First, we must massively assert our dignity and worth. We must stand up amidst a system that still oppresses us and develop an unassailable and majestic sense of values.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

1960s, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)

“And the other thing is that it causes one to engage ultimately in activities that are merely used to get attention. Criminologists tell us that some people are driven to crime because of this drum major instinct. They don't feel that they are getting enough attention through the normal channels of social behavior, and so they turn to anti-social behavior in order to get attention, in order to feel important. And so they get that gun, and before they know it they robbed a bank in a quest for recognition, in a quest for importance.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

1960s, The Drum Major Instinct (1968)

“There are many signs that the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. Unless the early sacrificial spirit is recaptured, I am very much afraid that today's Christian church will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and we will see the Christian church dismissed as a social club with no meaning or effectiveness for our time, as a form without substance, as salt without savor. The real tragedy, though, is not Martin Luther King's disillusionment with the church -- for I am sustained by its spiritual blessings as a minister of the gospel with a lifelong commitment: The tragedy is that in my travels, I meet young people of all races whose disenchantment with the church has soured into outright disgust.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

Interview in Playboy (January 1965) https://web.archive.org/web/20080706183244/http://www.playboy.com/arts-entertainment/features/mlk/04.html
1960s

“Then, finally, it can become so morbid that it rises to ominous proportions and leads to a tragic sense of persecution. There are persons who come to the point that they are so self-centered that they end up with a persecution complex and the end result is insanity. They end up thinking that the universe stands against them, that everybody is against them. They are turning around within themselves. They are little solar systems within themselves and they can’t see beyond that. And as a result of their failure to get out of self, they end up with a persecution complex and sometimes madness and insanity. These are some of the effects of selfcenteredness.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

1950s, Conquering Self-centeredness (1957)

“I discovered then that religion had to become real to me and I had to know God for myself. And I bowed down over that cup of coffee — I never will forget it. And oh yes, I prayed a prayer and I prayed out loud that night. I said, "Lord, I'm down here trying to do what's right. I think I'm right; I think the cause that we represent is right. But Lord, I must confess that I'm weak now; I'm faltering; I'm losing my courage. And I can't let the people see me like this because if they see me weak and losing my courage, they will begin to get weak." I wanted tomorrow morning to be able to go before the executive board with a smile on my face. And it seemed at that moment that I could hear an inner voice saying to me, "Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness, stand up for justice, stand up for truth. And lo I will be with you, even until the end of the world." And I'll tell you, I've seen the lightning flash. I've heard the thunder roll. I felt sin-breakers dashing, trying to conquer my soul. But I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone. No, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

1960s, Why Jesus Called A Man A Fool (1967)

“It is impossible to understand the significance of Christ without understanding the whole history of Biblical religion.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

Undated manuscript, "The Eternal Significance of Christ", an outline of a sermon on 2 Corinthians, at the King Center http://www.thekingcenter.org/archive/document/eternal-significance-christ

“I endorse it. I think it was correct. Contrary to what many have said, it sought to outlaw neither prayer nor belief in god. In a pluralistic society such as ours, who is to determine what prayer shall be spoken and by whom? Legally, constitutionally or otherwise, the state certainly has no such right.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

King sharing his thoughts on the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to ban school prayer, ** Interview in Playboy (January 1965) https://web.archive.org/web/20080706183244/http://www.playboy.com/arts-entertainment/features/mlk/04.html
1960s