Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.

This triadic contrast between hatred and love is characteristic of Martin Luther King Jr.’s mid-1950s preaching and writing, when he was articulating the theological and strategic basis of nonviolent resistance during the Montgomery bus boycott and its aftermath. King frequently drew on Christian agape and Gandhian nonviolence to argue that the movement’s goal was not the humiliation of opponents but the “redemption” of relationships and the creation of a reconciled community. The wording is widely circulated in quotation anthologies and on memorial sites, but it is often presented without a precise date or venue, suggesting it may have been excerpted from a sermon or compiled from closely related passages rather than preserved as a single, well-documented standalone statement.

The quote is built as a set of parallel contrasts: hatred “paralyzes,” “confuses,” and “darkens,” while love “releases,” “harmonizes,” and “illuminates.” King treats hatred not merely as an emotion but as a force that constricts moral agency and distorts perception, making purposeful action and clear judgment difficult. Love, by contrast, is presented as an active, ordering power—freeing people from cycles of vengeance, aligning means with ends, and clarifying the moral horizon. The progression from paralysis to darkness suggests that hate culminates in spiritual and social blindness, while love enables both personal integrity and collective reconciliation.