King on the Importance of Conscience in Action

On some positions, cowardice asks the question, is it expedient? And then expedience comes along and asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? Conscience asks the question, is it right?

There comes a time when one must take the position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must do it because conscience tells him it is right. I believe today that there is a need for all people of goodwill to come with a massive act of conscience and say in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “We ain’t goin’ study war no more.” This is the challenge facing modern man.

–Martin Luther King, Jr., Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, Sermon delivered on Passion Sunday, Mar. 31, 1968, in: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., p. 268.