Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes About Bitterness

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  Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love, Friendship, Change

  Martin Luther King (Jr.) (2012). “A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings”, p.50, Beacon Press

• As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation -- either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Healing, Sacrifice, Two

  Martin Luther King, Jr. (2012). “A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings”, p.159, Beacon Press

• Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Motivational, Inspiring, Leadership

  Martin Luther King, Jr. (2012). “A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings”, p.147, Beacon Press

• Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Peace, Freedom

  1963 Speech at the Lincoln Memorial, 28 Aug, during the March on Washington.

• If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Peace

• Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Community, Hatred, Brotherhood

  Martin Luther King (Jr.), Alex Ayres (1993). “The Wisdom of Martin Luther King, Jr”, Plume

• Love is creative and redemptive. Love builds up and unites; hate tears down and destroys. The aftermath of the ‘fight with fire’ method...is bitterness and chaos, the aftermath of the love method is reconciliation and creation of the beloved community...Yes , love-which means understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill, even for one’s enemies-is the solution

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Hate, Mean, Fighting

• The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind. It destroys communities and makes humanity impossible. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers... In winning our freedom, we will so appeal to you heart and conscience that we will win you in the process.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Heart, Eye, Winning

• It is better to be the recipient of violence than the inflicter of it, since the latter only multiplies the existence of violence and bitterness in the universe, while the former may develop a sense of shame in the opponent, and thereby bring about a transformation and change of heart.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Heart, May, Opponents

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “"In a Single Garment of Destiny": A Global Vision of Justice”, p.75, Beacon Press

• When a nation becomes obsessed with the guns of war, it loses its social perspective.... There is something about a war like this that makes people insensitive. It dulls the conscience. It strengthens the forces of reaction, and it brings into being bitterness and hatred and violence.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  War, Gun, People

• Hatred and bitterness can never cure the disease of fear; only love can do that. Hatred paralyzes life; love harmonies it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love Life, Hatred, Disease

• In struggling for human dignity the oppressed people of the world must not allow themselves to become bitter or indulge in hate campaigns. To retaliate with hate and bitterness would do nothing but intensify the hate in the world. Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can be done only by projecting the ethics of love to the center of our lives.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, Hate, War

• In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Freedom, Inspiration, 4th Of July

  I Have a Dream, delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.

• The way of acquiescence leads to moral and spiritual suicide. The way of violence leads to bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. But, the way of nonviolence leads to redemption and the creation of the beloved community.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Suicide, Spiritual, Beloved Community

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “"In a Single Garment of Destiny": A Global Vision of Justice”, p.75, Beacon Press

• Violence ends up defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Brutality, Survivor, Violence

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2010). “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story”, p.225, Beacon Press

• The end of violence or the aftermath of violence is bitterness. The aftermath of nonviolence is reconciliation and the creation of a beloved community. A boycott is never an end within itself. It is merely a means to awaken a sense of shame within the oppressor but the end is reconciliation, the end is redemption.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Mean, Beloved Community, Aftermath

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings”, p.38, Beacon Press

• In the event of a violent revolution, we would be sorely outnumbered. And when it was all over, the Negro would face the same unchanged conditions, the same squalor and deprivation-the only difference being that his bitterness would be even more intense, his disenchantment even more abject. Thus, in purely practical as well as moral terms, the American Negro has no rational alternative to nonviolence.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Differences, Revolution, Events

• Many people in Harlem never go out of Harlem. I mean they'd never even been downtown. And you can see how this bitterness can accumulate. Here you see people crowded and hovered up in ghettos and slums with no hope.They see no way out.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Mean, Ghetto, People

  Source: www.theatlantic.com

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