“If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.”
1960s, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence (1967)
Context: We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.
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Martin Luther King, Jr. 658
American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Ci… 1929–1968Related quotes
“What would I do without the moral compass of a teenage werewolf?”
Source: Magic Burns
As quoted in George Leggett, The Cheka: Lenin’s Political Police (1981), page 57.
Attributions
“Those who are without compassion cannot see what is seen with the eyes of compassion.”
Source: The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation
Memorabilia of Socrates Bk. 1, ch. 2, as translated by Sarah Fielding in The Whole Works of Xenophon (1840), p. 523.
Context: It is only for those to employ force who possess strength without judgment; but the well advised will have recourse to other means. Besides, he who pretends to carry his point by force hath need of many associates; but the man who can persuade knows that he is himself sufficient for the purpose; neither can such a one be supposed forward to shed blood; for, who is there would choose to destroy a fellow citizen rather than make a friend of him by mildness and persuasion?
“We are not rich by what we possess but by what we can do without.”
Variant: We are enriched not by what we possess, but by what we can do without.
“Without reading, we are all without light in the dark, without fire in the cold.”
Source: Tortall and Other Lands: A Collection of Tales
“We confide in our strength, without boasting of it; we respect that of others, without fearing it.”
Letter to William Carmichael and William Short (1793)
1790s
“We have an army without airplanes and without tanks. What sort of strength is this?”