“I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight, I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.”
Unitarian Minister Theodore Parker
Barack Obama used these words often, including at his inaugural speech on January 20, 2009. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used these words in a speech given at the National Cathedral on March 31, 1968 titled “Remaining Awake Through A Great Revolution.” Listen to the full speech here.
Professor Clayborn, a professor of history at Stanford University, discusses this quote in an NPR interview with Melissa Block on “All Things Considered.”
This quote has been used many times over the last nearly two centuries. The quote is attributed to the Unitarian Abolitionist Minister, Rev. Theodore H. Parker in a sermon that he gave in 1853.
Wherever the words came from, they ring true for me today. In the face of great darkness, know that through it all justice will prevail. I believe that.
October 15, 2020