We who in engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive.

More from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

• All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.
• A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on an installment plan.
• Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
• Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see. The Measure of a Man (1958)
• Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
• From the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire, let freedom ring. From the mighty mountains of New York, let freedom ring. From the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania, let freedom ring ... Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill ...