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Breaking Silence Quotes

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Breaking Silence Quotes

“You try to separate yourselves from history. You pretend its ugliness could never happen where you are. But it can...and it does, when normal people, en mass, allow worse and worse shit to go down because either they're too ignorant to understand or they're being corrupted by the powers that control the country. That's how this starts, that's how it gets too far. PLEASE see the signs. Please. This is human nature...to miss the boat out of fear or anger about others "taking what's ours" and so we allow (or cheer on) heinousness one step at a time until, before you know it, you're living in a nightmare of epic proportions and history sees you as the villain you became. DON'T BECOME A VILLAIN. BE THE VOICE THAT BREAKS THE INSANITY OPEN.”

HumanityPoliticsCompassionImmigrationSpeaking OutBreaking SilenceSocial Activism
Author:Jennifer DeLucy
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“A time comes when silence is betrayal. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought, within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world.”

MenWorldHumansDoeWarGovernmentMovingSpiritSilencePolicyDemandTasksDifficultyAssumingBetrayalApathySilence IsHuman SpiritBosomsOpposingConformistBreaking Silence
Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
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“The impulse to create begins - often terribly and fearfully - in a tunnel of silence. Every real poem is the breaking of an existing silence, and the first question we might ask any poem is, What kind of voice is breaking silence, and what kind of silence is being broken?”

FirstsKindRealMightAsksVoiceSilenceBrokenImpulseSilence IsTunnelsBreaking SilenceBeing Broken
Book:Arts of the Possible: Essays and Conversations
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“We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. . . . Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, 'Too late.' ... Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world.”

WorldLongStillsFactsTodayBeautifulOpportunityLostStruggleWrittenTomorrowCivilizationLateMy FriendsStandingBonesNakedBitterToo LateNew WorldFierceThievesProcrastinationPatheticUrgencyUnfoldingBreaking SilenceConundrumsLost OpportunityDejected
Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
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“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”

InspirationalWarGovernmentPoliticalPoliticsPeacePresidentFreedomLibertyStruggleViolenceImpossibleRevolutionWise WordsPoliticianViolentResistancePeacefulInevitablePresidentialRevolutionaryThoughtfulProtestRebellionFreedom And LibertyFreedom LibertyProperty RightsAmerican RevolutionMaking PeacePeace WarPeace And JusticeCoexistenceIndustrial RevolutionPeace JusticeMilitarismMake Peace Not WarRevolutionary WarAchieving PeaceActs Of ViolencePeaceful CoexistenceSocial RevolutionBreaking SilenceViolence And PeacePeaceful ProtestViolence And WarChange Is InevitablePolitical RevolutionGovernment And PoliticsPolitical StruggleGovernment PoliticsProfiles In CouragePolitical ViolencePeaceful RevolutionViolent RevolutionInevitable DeathRevolutionary LeadersPeaceful Country
Author:John F. Kennedy
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“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”

YearsSoulSpiritualNationsSocialChangeMoneyMilitaryKingsProgramInjusticeDefenseCivil RightsRadicalUpliftingJailMore MoneyDoomVietnam WarPeace WarPeace And JusticeMilitarismInspirational MilitaryWar CrimesEconomic JusticeBreaking SilenceKings SpeechSpiritual DeathSoul ForceSocial ProgramsMilitary SpendingEvils Of WarLesser KnownMilitary Discipline
Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
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“We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

PeoplePersonsImportantInspiringRightsComputerRacismMachinesPropertyProfitMotiveGiantsMaterialismIncapableProperty RightsMilitarismBreaking SilenceProfit MotiveTriplet
Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
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“On the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. "A Time to Break Silence," at Riverside Church”

MenNeedsPlayWholeHandsChurchSilenceCompassionBreakJourneyProduceOne DayMen And WomenTransformedBeatenSuperficialCoinsHighwaysInitialsBeggarEdificeJerichoBreaking SilenceHaphazardRoadsideRestructuringSamaritansRiverside
Book:In a Single Garment of Destiny
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“The recent statement of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: "A time comes when silence is betrayal." That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam. Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak.”

TodayNightFoundSpeakSilenceBreakCallingBetrayalAgonySilence IsVocationBreaking Silence
Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
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“Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when it helps us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.”

IfsKnowsMayHelpingValuesGrowsViewsCompassionEnemyConditionsBrotherWeaknessProfitPoint Of ViewOppositionMatureNonviolenceAssessmentTrue MeaningBreaking Silence
Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
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“We can no longer afford to worship the God of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. Love is the key to the solution of the problems of the world.”

WorldLifeMadeSelfProblemHateIndividualNationsLove IsPathKeysOceanWorshipSolutionsRisingTidesBowsPursuedAltarsLove HateRetaliationWreckageBreaking Silence
Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
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“A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our present policies... True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. A true revolution of values will soon look on uneasily upon the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth with righteous indignation.”

LooksValuesCausesWealthJusticeCompassionPovertyPolicyRevolutionContrastRighteousFairnessCoinsBeggarIndignationBreaking SilenceRighteous Indignation
Book:In a Single Garment of Destiny
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“Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism... We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now.”

WorldSometimesFactsTodaySpiritLyingAbilityPovertyHeroTomorrowEternalRacismMy FriendsRevolutionaryHeroicFierceHostileHostilityUrgencyDeclaringMilitarismBreaking Silence
Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
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“We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and for 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.”

IfsWorldWayLongWarMightActionPastMovingSpeakPeaceJusticeDarkCompassionDoorsMoralitySightDevelopingBordersVietnamNew WaysReservedShamefulIndecisionCorridorsBreaking Silence
Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
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“A time comes when silence is betrayal. That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift, is approaching spiritual death.I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor.”

MenYearsLongWarAmericaSpiritualEnergyNationsSocialPoorSilenceEnemyMilitaryAdventureSkillsDrawsProgramRelationBetrayalDefenseUpliftingDestructiveFundVietnamAntiwarMore MoneySilence IsCompelledTubesRehabilitationDemonicBreaking SilenceSpiritual Death
Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
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“This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love.”

MenHumansWarHomeHateNationsJusticeDarkHuman BeingsDrugAnd LoveBurningAntiwarBloodyVeinsFillingHumaneBattlefieldsWidowsOrphanPeace And JusticePoisonousHandicappedDerangedBreaking SilenceKings SpeechNapalmJustice And Love
Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
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“The 'tide in the affairs of men' does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: 'Too late...'”

MenMayDoeWrittenCryCivilizationLateClimateAffairBonesToo LatePassagesTidesFloodPausesDeafPatheticBreaking Silence
Book:In a Single Garment of Destiny
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“"When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality."”

RealitySpeakForceLove IsPowerfulPrinciplesDoorsEmotionalKeysWeakUltimateResponseSupremeLove LifeSentimentalUnifyingUltimate RealityBreaking Silence
Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
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