[Martin Luther King Jr.:]
I say to you this morning, that if you have never found something so dear and so precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren’t fit to live
You may be 38 years old as I happen to be
And one day some great opportunity stands before you
And calls upon 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’re 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
And 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 sensation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit
You died when you refused to stand up for right
You died when you refused to stand up for truth
You died when you refused to stand up for justice