• Martin Luther King, Jr., on Courage

    by  • January 16, 2012 • The Meaning of Manhood • 0 Comments

    On this holiday, some thoughts on courage by Martin Luther King, Jr.

    “Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles;
    Cowardice is submissive surrender to circumstances.
    Courage breeds creativity; Cowardice represses fear and is mastered by it.
    Cowardice asks the question, is it safe?
    Expediency ask the question, is it politic?
    Vanity asks the question, is it popular?

    But conscience ask the question, is it right? And there comes a time when we must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.”

    —

    “You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be. And one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls you to stand up for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid…. You refuse to do it because you want to live longer…. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab you, or shoot at you or bomb your house; so you refuse to take the stand.

    Well, you may go on and live until you are 90, but you’re just as dead at 38 as you would be at 90. And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.”

    —

    “Courage faces fear and thereby masters it”
    ― Strength to Love

    —

    “It does not matter how long you live, but how well you do it.”
    —

    “The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important.”

    About

    A web programmer by day, I somehow still spend a lot of time thinking about relationships, God, and the significance of grace and love in daily events. I am old school in the sense that I believe in the reality of sin, and in the need of each human heart for deliverance to the Divine. I am one of those who believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that you can find most answers to life's pressing issues in Him and His Word, the Bible. I ain't perfect, and a lot of the time I ain't good, but by God's grace and kindness, I am forgiven and free.

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