美國黑人民權運動領袖馬丁‧路德‧金曾經講:「當一個人接受罪惡,縱然是被動的,但他的責任,跟那些主動參與的人,沒什麼兩樣。當一個人接受罪惡而沒有伸張正義,他實際上成了幫凶。」(He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.)
馬丁‧路德‧金還曾講:「歷史將會記下,在社會轉型期,最大的悲劇不是壞人的刺耳叫囂,而是好人的過分沉默。」(History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.)