“The Highest Respect for the Law”

An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.

–Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

5 thoughts on ““The Highest Respect for the Law”

  1. Mali says:

    ” … is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.” And for his or her community, I would add.

    Thanks for pointing this quote out. Here in NZ, we’re not always familiar with all of his writings.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Chandra Lynn says:

      If you have time, read “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” It is an expert piece of writing. Hits all the points in terms of a well-considered argument with the right balance of logos, ethos, and pathos.

      Like

Talk to me...

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.