Only love can do that.

Martin Luther King, Jr. on loving your enemies. (The Commonplace Book Project)

Don Cravens / The Life Images Collection / Getty; Bettmann / Getty

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
— Martin Luther King, Jr. in his speech, Loving Your Enemies.

I’ve shared one of the MLK’s most well known, well loved quotes. I want to share it again, below, with a little more context.

Why should we love our enemies? The first reason is fairly obvious. 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.

Here’s an audio recording of his speech.

It is interesting to me that King did not say that you should not have enemies.