The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once wrote, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
The late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., known for his eloquence and ability to mobilize the masses throughout the Civil Rights era, is often incorrectly credited for quotes that he never said. One of the most famous lines attributed to King is typically quoted as “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
In January 2024, this quote was even posted on the official X (formerly Twitter) page of the State of Israel.
“๐๐๐ซ๐ค๐ง๐๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐๐๐ง๐ง๐จ๐ญ ๐๐ซ๐ข๐ฏ๐ ๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐๐๐ซ๐ค๐ง๐๐ฌ๐ฌ, ๐จ๐ง๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐ฅ๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ญ ๐๐๐ง ๐๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ญ. ๐๐๐ญ๐ ๐๐๐ง๐ง๐จ๐ญ ๐๐ซ๐ข๐ฏ๐ ๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ก๐๐ญ๐, ๐จ๐ง๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฏ๐ ๐๐๐ง ๐๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ญ.”
– ๐๐๐ซ๐ญ๐ข๐ง ๐๐ฎ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ซ ๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ซ.
Today we mark Martin Luther Kingโฆ pic.twitter.com/QJaIbnF42r
โ Israel ืืฉืจืื ๐ฎ๐ฑ (@Israel) January 15, 2024
These words were indeed written by King. However, for more than a decade now, there has been confusion as to the precise wording of the quote. In 2011, following the killing of Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011, a version of the quote went viral on the internet. It stated: “I will 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.”
Given that if followed the controversial killing of bin Laden, the quote spread across the internet at an impressive reach, especially for the time. Penn Jillette, a famous magician and outspoken libertarian, tweeted the quote to his 1.6 million Facebook followers, and it only continued to go viral from there.
Questions about whether the quote was presented accurately were picked up by The Atlantic, NPR, and other news outlets. They found the wording was correct except for the very first sentence, which was not found in King’s speeches or writings: “I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy.”
As it turns out, however, Jillette was only a perpetuator โ not the originator โ of the erroneous version of the quote. Before Jillette shared it, Facebook user Jessica Dovey quoted the King passage correctly on her status, but prefaced it with a sentence expressing her own personal thoughts: “I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy.” She distinguished her own thoughts from King’s via an opening quotation mark, which was dropped somewhere along the line as it picked up internet traction.
(Image via The Atlantic)
The complete quote by King, which can be found in his 1963 book “Strength to Love,” read as follows:
Commenters on Israel’s X post quoting King were quick to point to a clarification provided by Bernice King, MLK’s youngest daughter, on Oct. 31, 2023, in regard to her father’s stance on Israel.
๐งต Amy:
Certainly, my father was against antisemitism, as am I.
He also believed militarism (along with racism and poverty) to be among the interconnected Triple Evils.
I am certain he would call for Israelโs bombing of Palestinians to cease, for hostages to be releasedโฆ https://t.co/haahcqcuAf
โ Be A King (@BerniceKing) November 1, 2023
We’ve previously written on other rumors related to King, including whether the FBI sent a letter telling him to kill himself and whether King and his wife, Coretta Scott King, paid the hospital bill for actress Julia Robert’s birth.