The Martin Luther King Quote That Never Existed

You know that Martin Luther King Jr. quote you've been seeing every where after Osama Bin Laden's death? “I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy?” Well, turns out he never said it.

The Martin Luther King Quote That Never Existed

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From The Atlantic: “…it’s a bit too a propos. What “thousands” would King have been talking about? In which enemy’s death was he supposed to be rejoicing?

A quick google search turns up lots of tweets, all of them from today. Searching Martin Luther King Jr. quote pages for the word “enemy” does not turn up this quote, only things that probably wouldn’t go over nearly so well, like “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy to a friend.” I’m pretty sure that this quote, too, is fake.”

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20 Responses So Far

  • Ryan thinks The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev... is Fail  about 4 months ago
  • hollandes thinks The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev... is LOL  about a year ago
  • izaya   The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev... and thinks it’s OMG & LOL  about a year ago
  • “I will not mourn the dead of a thousand lives, but I will kill the fucker who did it” - me

    multichampion
    a year ago
  • chrissy   The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev...  about a year ago
  • themassakr thinks The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev... is WTF  about a year ago
  • The first sentence is not his. The rest is.

    Lilly R.
    a year ago
  • velocilott thinks The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev... is Old & Fail  about a year ago
  • Strength to Love (1963)

    southernfrieda
    a year ago
  • 1.21 jiggawhats thinks The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev... is LOL  about a year ago
  • Joshua Fjelstad thinks The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev... is Get Real(old)!  about a year ago
  • Hope this helps…

    brianw10
    a year ago
  • Andrew T.   The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev...  about a year ago
  • mrossana thinks The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev... is Fail, Get Real(old)! & OMG  about a year ago
  • It's as much an MLK quote as this is an Ezekiel passage. “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides with the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of charity and good will shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon those with great vengeance and with furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know that my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.” I'll stick with Zeke.

    Flint Skinny
    a year ago
  • Has anyone read the comments on this article? MLK wrote all this -just in two different books.

    Miss Cellania
    a year ago
  • “What “thousands” would King have been talking about? In which enemy’s death was he supposed to be rejoicing? “ uhhhh The Atlantic, what about the Vietnam war? also, while there were hundreds of people who died during the Civil Rights Movement, i'm sure it would put it in the the thousands if you consider everyone that had been killed up until then because they were black.
    You could go back as far as slavery in the u.s.. i'm sure that would easily put you in the thousands in terms of deaths

    Gaby
    a year ago
  • Allison Y.   The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev...  about a year ago
  • The new MLK misquote memes.

    Alex G.
    a year ago
  • Eduardo M. thinks The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev... is LOL & OMG  about a year ago
  • soullessecho thinks The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev... is LOL  about a year ago
  • It is from MLK jr's book. “Strength to Love” 1963
    Not an exact quote….

    nicolee4
    a year ago
  • It's from his 1967 book “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?” Full passage is here: “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 may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, 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. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. The chain reaction of evil — hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars — must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.”

    minos
    a year ago
  • Avina thinks The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev... is Fail & LOL  about a year ago
  • Another Putz thinks The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev... is Get Real(old)!, LOL & Fail  about a year ago
  • Ugh too many people I am “friends” with have been posting it.

    Another Putz
    a year ago
  • Beasty   The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev...  about a year ago
  • brittanyleighb   The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev... and thinks it’s Fail  about a year ago
  • The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev... is starting to get hot on StumbleUpon Stumble It  about a year ago
  • Emu thinks The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev... is LOL  about a year ago
  • seanf5   The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev...  about a year ago
  • armandomo   The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev...  about a year ago
  • soverysavvy   The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev...  about a year ago
  • melaniw   The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev...  about a year ago
  • bump: not real: “I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy.”

    real: “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, 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”
    — Martin Luther King Jr.

    AlftheSacredBurro
    a year ago
  • Fuck those dirty hippies!

    warpafx
    a year ago
  • So fuck all of you that didn't party.

    Sweetlips
    a year ago
  • This is most definitely a time to rejoice! Evil incarnate went down after taking 2 rounds. I'd love to shake the hand of the man who took those shots. I will rejoice again- maybe even put on a party hat— when Osama realizes there are not any virgins on the ocean floor.

    Bob Sommers
    a year ago
  • It's the perfect bait to reveal douchebags on your Facebook feed. “Oh, so you're as peaceful as MLK? Well shit, guess I should just shut the fuck up and stop feeling good today.” Sorry, it's just that the only people who made that their statuses, at least among my friends, were a-holes.

    christianh4
    a year ago
  • The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev... is starting to get hot on Facebook Share It  about a year ago
  • Darth Vader said this.

    jimi_H_stinson
    a year ago
  • The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev... was featured on the homepage  about a year ago
  • Nice quote but this is what I believe I am happy that a mass murderer does not have the luxury of dying peacefully after a long life, a right that he denied thousands.  I am happy about that.

    mattb17
    a year ago
  • mattb17 thinks The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev... is LOL  about a year ago
  • tankearae   The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev...  about a year ago
  • jimb8   The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev...  about a year ago
  • anthonyg4   The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev...  about a year ago
  • Koolgecko91   The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev...  about a year ago
  • Gunner thinks The Martin Luther King Quote That Nev... is LOL  about a year ago
  • not real: “I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy.” real: “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, 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”
    — Martin Luther King Jr.

    taylov
    a year ago
  • soooooo….where did it come from then?

    Jillian W.
    a year ago

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