We do not need to kill or destroy to win. We are a movement that builds and not destroys.
However important the struggle is and however much misery and poverty and degradation exist, we know that it cannot be more important than one human life.
Our union represents a breaking away...represents sharing a power, represent questioning, represents a new force...however long it takes, we are geared for a struggle.
If you give yourself totally to the nonviolence struggle for peace and justice you also find that people give you their hearts and you will never go hungry and never be alone.
I think one of the great, great problems...is confusing people to the point where they become immobile. In fact, the more things people can find out for themselves, the more vigor the organization is going to have.
If you win non-violently, then you have a double victory, you have not only won your fight, but you remain free.
We're going to pray a lot and picket a lot.
The strike and the boycott, they have cost us much. What they have not paid us in wages, better working conditions, and new contracts, they have paid us in self-respect and human dignity.
Non-violence has suffered its biggest defeat in the hands of people who most want to talk about it.
We are organizers at heart. Most of us in the movement take great pride in being able to put things together.
In non-violence the cause has to be just and clear as well as the means.
Violence just hurts those who are already hurt...Instead of exposing the brutality of the oppressor, it justifies it.
Organizing is an educational process. The best educational process in the union is the picket line and the boycott. You learn about life.
We are certain God's will is that all men share in the good things this earth produces.
The only ones who make things change are fanatics. If you're not a fanatic around here, you can't cut it.
You know, if people are not pacifists, it's not their fault. It's because society puts them in that spot. You've got to change it. You don't just change a man - you've got to change his environment as you do it.
Look at the John Birch Society. Look at Hitler. The reactionaries are always better organizers.
If we are full of hatred, we can't really do our work. Hatred saps all that strength and energy we need to plan.
Non-violence exacts a very high price from one who practices it. But once you are able to meet that demand then you can do most things.
Non violence means people in action. People have to understand that with non-violence goes a hell of a lot of organization.
We need, in a special way, to work twice as hard to help people understand that the animals are fellow creatures, that we must protect them and love them as we love ourselves.
The basis for peace is respecting all creatures.
If you're not frightened that you might fail, you'll never do the job. If you're frightened, you'll work like crazy.
I would not take one cup of coffee from a grower...There's not a good one. I hate them. A few presents, a little talk, then the noose. That's how capitalism works.
Years of misguided teaching have resulted in the destruction of the best in our society, in our cultures and in the environment.
The non-violent technique does not depend for its success on the goodwill of the oppressor, but rather on the unfailing assistance of God.
What is at stake is human dignity. If a man is not accorded respect he cannot respect himself and if he does not respect himself, he cannot demand it.
When a man or woman, young, or old, takes a place on the picket line for even a day or two, he will never be the same again.
The first principle of non-violent action is that of non-cooperation with everything humiliating.
Do not romanticize the poor...We are all people, human beings subject to the same temptations and faults as all others. Our poverty damages our dignity.
