Dr. King Describes How to Achieve Greatness
In the frontispiece to my new book SLAYING GOLIATH, I quoted four statements that represented different aspects of my book.
One of them is a quotation from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that is not well-known.
It comes from a speech called “The Drum Major Instinct,” which he delivered in the last spring of his life at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on February 4, 1968.
Dr. King said:
“Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.”
I have no doubt that some readers will wonder why I included this quotation, since it seems to put down the academic learning that is so highly valued in society CONTINUE READING: Dr. King Describes How to Achieve Greatness | Diane Ravitch's blog
