Quote of the Day #17 — Martin Luther King Jr.

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

— Martin Luther King Jr., speech at the end of the Selma to Montgomery march, 1965

King used this line often in the 1960s, especially at the end of the Selma march. It wasn't originally his. King was quoting an existing phrase, which he always put in quotation marks when he wrote it down. The phrase comes from Theodore Parker, a 19th-century Unitarian minister and abolitionist who supported John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry. In Parker's 1853 sermon, he said, "You see a continual and progressive triumph of the right. I do not pretend to understand the moral universe, the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways... But from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice." King shortened and popularized it. Later, Barack Obama had the line added to a rug in the Oval Office.

Parker's original version is more cautious. He states that the arc bends toward justice but confesses, "my eye reaches but little ways," meaning he can't truly see that far. King's shorter version sounds more like a promise. Is this more confident interpretation a fair update, considering a century more evidence of Parker's claim? Or does it risk suggesting that injustice corrects itself when it typically bends only because people push for change?