“It’ll be liberty, or it will be death. The only difference about this kind of death—it’ll be reciprocal.”
The Ballot or the Bullet (1964), Speech in Cleveland, Ohio (April 3, 1964)
Context: And now you’re facing a situation where the young Negro’s coming up. They don’t want to hear that "turn the-other-cheek" stuff, no. In Jacksonville, those were teenagers, they were throwing Molotov cocktails. Negroes have never done that before. But it shows you there’s a new deal coming in. There’s new thinking coming in. There’s new strategy coming in. It’ll be Molotov cocktails this month, hand grenades next month, and something else next month. It’ll be ballots, or it’ll be bullets. It’ll be liberty, or it will be death. The only difference about this kind of death—it’ll be reciprocal.
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Malcolm X 180
American human rights activist 1925–1965Related quotes

"Ignorance of Death" (1940), line 3; cited from John Haffenden (ed.) The Complete Poems (London: Allen Lane, 2000) p. 78.
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“Outside of that single fatality of death, everything, joy or happiness, is liberty.”
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), Absurd Creation

Interview with El Tiempo in Bogotá, Colombia. October 2008 http://www.eltiempo.com/media/produccion/greenaway/#4
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reprinted in 'Zero', ed. Otto Piene and Heinz Mack, Cambridge, Mass; MIT Press 1973, p. 119
Quotes, 1960's, untitled statements in 'Zero 3', (1961)