“Let us be practical and ask the question: How do we love our enemies?”

—  Martin Luther King, Jr.

1950s, Loving Your Enemies (Christmas 1957)

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Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Martin Luther King, Jr. 658
American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Ci… 1929–1968

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“Let us move now from the practical how to the theoretical why: Why should we love our enemies?”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

This passage contains some phrases King later used in "Where Do We Go From Here?" (1967) which has a section below.
1950s, Loving Your Enemies (Christmas 1957)
Context: Let us move now from the practical how to the theoretical why: Why should we love our enemies? The first reason is fairly obvious. 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. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. So when Jesus says "love your enemies," he is setting forth a profound and ultimately inescapable admonition. Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies-or else? The chain reaction of evil-Hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars-must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.

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“Let us greedily enjoy our friends, because we do not know how long this privilege will be ours.”

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“The Spartans do not ask how many the enemies are but where they are.”

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As quoted in Moralia by Plutarch, Book 16, Apophthegmata Laconica [Sayings of the Spartans], 215.
Variant translations:
Spartans do not ask how many, only where the enemy are.
The Spartans do not ask how many, but where their enemies are.

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“The questions we ask are "What?" and "How?" What are the facts and how are they related? If sometimes, in a moment of absent-mindedness or idle diversion, we ask the question "Why?"”

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the answer escapes us.
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