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path: Home / Queries * Dr. Martin Luther King & Other Quotes

What is the source of the quote from Martin Luther King about the weakness of violence in "The Dogs of War"?
We found the full accurate quote and source information plus the full essay it comes from in the following web pages:
  • "The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that."
            The Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr
            Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community
            ©1967, page 62 [reading from Beacon Press paperback edition]
             --- from http://www.homestead.com/prsac/files/mlking.htm
  • The entire essay Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community can be found in pdf here:
    www.dora.state.co.us/civil-rights/comingevents/MLKnom_form_03.pdf

Where does the title, "The Stormy Present" come from?
West Wing Episode Guide. tells us it's "an Abraham Lincoln quote. 'The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present.'

And "Sophonteli" posted about the title on Television Without Pity's West Wing forum, "It's from an address to Congress that spoke about the emancipation proclamation. A few days later the big battle of Fredericksburg occured. And after that, Lincoln almost lost control of his cabinet." and quoted some of the speech:
"We can succeed only by concert.

"It is not 'can any of us imagine better?' but 'can we all do better?'

"Object whatsoever is possible, still the question recurs "can we do better?" The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall our selves, and then we shall save our country.

"Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us.

"In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best, hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just - a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless."


Where does the title, "The Benign Prerogative" come from?
"GraydonCarter" posted about the title on Television Without Pity's West Wing forum,
"Alexander Hamilton responded forcefully that the clemency power is both necessary, and is properly vested in the President alone:"

"'Humanity and good policy conspire to dictate that the benign prerogative of pardoning should be as little as possible fettered or embarrassed. . . . As the sense of responsibility is always strongest in proportion as it is undivided, it may be inferred that a single man would be most ready to attend to the force of those motives which might plead for mitigation of the rigors of the law, and least apt to yield to considerations which were calculated to shelter a fit object of its vengeance.'
The Federalist No. 74, at 447-48 (A. Hamilton)"

Who was Leo quoting in the line about 'You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.' in "Talking Points"?
We must admit that we didn't even know this was a quote until we looked at the always informative West Wing Episode Guide. After that website showed us it was a quote by Mario Cuomo, we found some additional details.

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