fbpx
[additional-authors]
January 17, 2011

Creator’s Note: Still, like last year, the above comment from Martin Luther King Jr. is my favorite of his. On this MLK Day, I’m reposting my post from last MLK Day. Unlike last year, it’s not raining but is in fact brilliant outside.

The third Monday of January is more than just a chance to stay home and watch a little NBA while it pours rain—yes, even in Southern California—outside. This is, of course, the day with which we honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. It’s a legacy that really can’t be understated, but it’s also one so casually appreciated that I can’t imagine many people stop to really appreciate it often. I know I don’t.

Reporters try to to remind us of why this day matters, but, much like any routine holiday coverage, it’s difficult to find an inspiring way to tell the same story each year.

This might help. It’s a collection of a few of MLK’s quotes, appearing on the blog of a college friend of mine who was reviewing them for the Fuller Theological Seminary student newspaper:

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”

“Returning violence for violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars…Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

Read the rest here.

Did you enjoy this article?
You'll love our roundtable.

Editor's Picks

Latest Articles

Three Dates to Dataland

I took three different dates, ages 6, 72 and 35, to see Dataland, the unusual digital art experience in downtown Los Angeles.

Hakol Shalom, All Is Shalom

This is the transcript of the speech Rabbi Dr. Bradley Shavit Artson gave at the 2026 AJU Gala on May 19, 2026.

A Slice of Aussie Heaven for the Jewish Day of Love

A classic Australian dessert chocolate coconut slice features a rich, dense, fudgy chocolate base packed with dried coconut, finished with a thick cocoa frosting and generously dusted with even more coconut.

The Empty Plaza and the Eternal Bond

This Tisha b’Av, as we mourn over the Temple once more, it is an occasion to consider what resonance the remnants of the Temple structure hold for us today.

Rosner’s Domain | A Leftist (Not) by Choice?

Coalition supporters want to define Eisenkot as a leftist because leftist is a title most Israelis do not want their Prime Minister to hold. But this definition has inherent limitations.

Life, Love and Tisha b’Av

As if life needed one more complication, my anniversary with life, my birthday, usually falls somewhere inside the Three Weeks, that narrow corridor of Jewish time when celebration starts to feel suspicious.

Echoes of Oct. 7 in ‘The Odyssey’

The film reminded me that an ancient poet could write about massacres but also about moral courage, while terrorists who dream of killing Jews can only think of going right to the massacre.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.