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.
–Martin Luther King Jr., “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution,”
March 31, 1968