This is a collection of insightful and inspirational quotations from Martin Luther King, Jr’s (MLK) writings, sermons and speeches. Like any such collection, this is not an end-in-itself work but more of an opener for a deeper and more contextual dive into MLK’s life and work.

 

It’s a short collection, less than 20K words; the quotations take up about 55% of the book, with the rest of the space given over to Coretta Scott King’s introduction, a chronology of MLK’s life, and the Proclamation of MLK Day text.

 

The quotes are organized by subject headings, such as Racism, Peace, Civil Rights and the Community of Man; all are thought-provoking and some of my favourites are:

 

Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others?

 

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

 

I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.

 

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

 

A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.†

 

We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.

 

A doctrine of black supremacy is as evil as a doctrine of white supremacy.

 

The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason but with no morals.

 

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

 

There is so much frustration in the world because we have relied on gods rather than God.

 

St. Augustine was right—we were made for God and we will be restless until we find rest in Him.

 

The belief that God will do everything for man is as untenable as the belief that man can do everything for himself. It, too, is based on a lack of faith. We must learn that to expect God to do everything while we do nothing is not faith but superstition.

 († this quote brings to mind Socrates’ “an unexamined life is not worth living”)

 

The books mentioned in the chronology as authored by MLK are:

• Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story (Sep 1958)
• Strength to Love (Jun 1963)
• Why We Can’t Wait (Jun 1964)
• Where Do We Go from Here? (Jan 1967)

 

 

This book is awesome. It has quotes from some many people, and for every emotion, event, activity or anything you can think of. This really is quite an extensive compilation.
I was harboring some anger when I sat to read it.  Anger quotes were pretty early on, as the quotes are listed alphabetically. I read some of the anger quotes and started to slowly realize that holding onto that anger was doing me no good. The person who angered me didn't care. Only I did. This was the quote that hit me hardest;

Won this as a strange academic prize in secondary school. I REALLY loved this book.

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           Shakespeare: This was the most unkindest cut of all. (Julius Caesar 3.2.184, MARK ANTONY'S oration on the murder of Julius Caesar)

 

           KillerRabbit hops up.

 

           KillerRabbit: You sound upset, Shakespeare. What seems to be the problem?

 

           Shakespeare: Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not 'seems' . (Hamlet 1.2.76, HAMLET TO GERTRUDE)

 

           KillerRabbit: Let me guess, some reviewer called you a derogatory name, like Quean Quill, and you want to have their post deleted.

 

Shakespeare: What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet; (Romeo and Juliet 2.2.47-8, JULIET Capulet contemplating the unfortunate reality that Romeo is encumbered with the Montague surname)

 

KillerRabbit: Well if you're not offended by name calling, then what is the problem?

 

Shakespeare: Art made tongue tied by authority. (Sonnet 66.9)

 

KillerRabbit: Wait…are you upset about the censorship policy that's been instituted by the Amazon folks who now own goodreads?

 

Shakespeare: The demi-god, Authority. (Measure for Measure 1.2.120, CLAUDIO TO THE PROVOST)

 

KillerRabbit: I've been calling them Amazon Overlords, but I guess demi-god works, too. So you think we should do something about the censorship?

 

Shakespeare: If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well it be done quickly. (Macbeth 1.7.1-2, MACBETH)

 

KillerRabbit: Rabbits are all about the now, buddy. What do you have in mind?

 

Shakespeare: Action is eloquence. (Coriolanus 3.2.6, VOLUMNIA)

 

KillerRabbit: Agreed. So far, I've written some protest reviews. I also created a shelf called 'Really Bad Egg Author', and put Mother Teresa on it.

 

Shakespeare: Though she be but little, she is fierce. (Midsummer Night's Dream 3.2.325, HELENA's retort )

 

KillerRabbit: People always underestimate the ferocity of rabbits. But to be honest, I'm not sure that protesting will make any difference.

 

Shakespeare: Every man's conscience is a thousand men. (Richard III 5.2.17, OXFORD TO COMPANIONS IN ARMS)

 

KillerRabbit: Yeah, I'm sure that's going to overwhelm the power of the Amazon Overlords. But the thing is, they haven't actually deleted any of my own reviews.

 

Shakespeare: A wretched soul bruised with adversity, we bid be quiet when we hear it cry; But were we burdened with like weight of pain, as much, or more, we should ourselves complain. (Comedy of Errors 2.1.34-7, ADRIANA TO LUCIANA)

 

KillerRabbit: Are you saying I'm a selfish, short-sighted swine if I don't do anything? That it's just a matter of time before this place becomes a totalitarian review-state like Amazon.com?

 

Shakespeare: One for all or all for one we gage. (Lucrece 144)

 

KillerRabbit: big ol' sigh Fine, I'll keep up the protesting.

 

Shakespeare: Was that not nobly done? Ay, and wisely too. (Macbeth 3.6.14 LENOX TO ANOTHER LORD)

 

KillerRabbit: Yeah, I'm super-noble. But I really don't think this plan is the wise choice. It's just a matter of time before the Overlords assign somebody to shush us. Maybe we should just leave to Booklikes.

 

Shakespeare: No! - I defy all counsel. (King John 3.3.23, CONSTANCE TO PHILIP, KING OF FRANCE)

 

sound of approaching footsteps

 

KillerRabbit: Run away! It's Kara from the Customer Care Department!

 

This one really makes me laugh.
1) Jonathan posted a protest review on this book.
2) I liked his protest, so I posted my own (whimsical) different protest review.
3) Goodreads deleted Jonathan's review.
4) I added Jonathan's review onto the bottom of mine as a Hydra.
5) Jonathan re-posted his review as a Hydra review.
6) Goodreads deleted both of our reviews.
7) I repost mine as a Hydra.
8) You post mine as a Hydra!

To make life easy for you, I've put the pre-formatted review on my blog - HERE - so all you need to do is cut and paste and add your own notes (if you wish to do so).

Hate censorship? Hug a Hydra!
(Thanks Ruby for that catchphrase, it put a big smile on my face.)

Hugz for all!
-C
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I have no intention of ever reading this book because the author is a super-douche who:

1) Thinks He-Man is better than Thundercats
2) Regularly wears denim on denim combinations
3) Drinks black tea with sliced lemon in it
4) Doesn't like cats
5) Never calls his mother just to ask how her day has been
6) Itches his balls in public, and then shakes hands with people
7) Has never seen E.T.
8) Doesn't like my poetry
9) Gets a little ball of spit on the corner of his mouth when he's angry
10) Bought a fish bonker for it's intended purpose

EVEN THOUGH I HAVE NOT READ IT I HAVE RATED IT TEH ONE STARS!
(thus skewing the 'true' ranking of this book, which is, like, SO unfair to the author)

//Flagged, yes please?

In support of this protest review by Jonathan.

If a review gets taken down - the hydra reviews will post it back up. If a shelf gets taken down - the hydra shelves will come up in replacement. How many heads does the hydra need before the censors drop the sword?

THIS IS BRILLIANT! The very protest post I wrote this in support of has now been taken down by Goodreads' censorship patrol! Can anyone else hear the Hydra coming?

--------------------------------



This review by Jonathan was recently removed by Goodreads for breaking their ridiculous censorship policy - but is reposted here thanks to the good folk at Hydra Rebellions.

So apparently Goodreads want to remove, without warning, any review that doesn't actually talk about the book (well more or less) but attacks the author. Not hide, not ask the author nicely to change, just a total removal. So I'm not actually going to write a review about this book, I'm testing the waters (inspired by certain friends) to ask whether we can all show Goodreads just a little how ridiculous and unprofessional the sudden changes to its terms of service are by posting reviews and shelves like this. I mean, really, what kind of grey area are we going into? Are some of the excellent humorous reviews out there just going to disappear, hence removing some of the fun of this site? If this review still stands by the same time next week as it is (including shelves). Well, I'll take it that Goodreads are making empty statements and that is that - more for the sake of legalities. Also, Chairman Mao was a rather vile dictator who killed off millions of his people. More of his own people than Hitler committed genocide. I can't see his ego getting stroked from beyond the grave... Which is why I want to further add. Why are Goodreads making this effort to stoke author egos? I see more directed at readers here. Yes, maybe some shelves are pointlessly rude. But not giving people a chance to save content and change (doing a backflip) is just unethical. And Mao is still evil. UPDATE: Still nothing from Goodreads on what they've done so unprofessionally. An amendment and apology couldn't be that hard right

Spread the call of the Hydra!