"There is a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers."
The Quest for Peace and Justice (1964)
Martin Luther King's Nobel Lecture
delivered in the Auditorium of the University of Oslo (11 December 1964)
"So much of modern life can be summarized in that arresting dictum of the poet Thoreau: "Improved means to an unimproved end". This is the serious predicament, the deep and haunting problem confronting modern man. If we are to survive today, our moral and spiritual "lag" must be eliminated. Enlarged material powers spell enlarged peril if there is not proportionate growth of the soul. When the "without" of man's nature subjugates the "within", dark storm clouds begin to form in the world." - December 11, 1964
Lag-time
"Compassion is to be reserved for members of your own group. The out-group is to be treated in a way described there in Deuteronomy. Now, today there is no out-group anymore on the planet. And the problem of a modern religion is to have such compassion work for the whole of humanity. But then what happens to the aggression? This is a problem that the world is going to, have to face — because aggression is a natural instinct just as much as, and more immediate than, compassion, and it is always going to be there. It’s a biological fact." - The Power of Myth, year 1988, interview filmed by George Lucas in summer of 1985 / 1986 / 1987.
Lag-time: "because aggression is a natural instinct just as much as, and more immediate than, compassion"