𝑲𝒊𝒏𝒈'𝒔 "𝑳𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝑩𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝑰𝒔 𝒂 𝑪𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝑺𝒚𝒏𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑶𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝑭𝒓𝒖𝒊𝒕𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒚"

"𝘽𝙚 𝙮𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙨𝙚 𝙖𝙨 𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙢𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙖𝙨 𝙙𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙨." - Matt 10:16

"A french philosopher said, 'No man is strong unless he bears within his character antitheses strongly marked.' The strong man holds in a living blend strongly marked opposites. Not ordinarily do men achieve this balance of opposites. The idealists are not usually realistic, and the realists are not usually idealistic. The militant are not generally known to be passive, nor the passive to be militant. Seldom are the humble self-assertive, or the self-assertive humble. But life at its best is a creative synthesis of opposites in fruitful harmony. The philosopher Hegel said that truth is found neither in the thesis nor the antithesis, but in an emergent synthesis which reconciles the two.

Jesus recognized the need for blending opposites. He knew that his disciples would face a difficult and hostile world, where they would confront the recalcitrance [the fact of being unwilling to obey rules or follow instructions; the fact of being difficult to control] of political officials and the intransigence [refusal to change one's views or to agree about something] of the protectors of the old order. He knew that they would meet cold and arrogant men whose hearts had been hardened by the long winter of traditionalism. So he said to them, 'Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.' And he gave them a formula for action: 'Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.' It is pretty difficult to imagine a single person having, simultaneously, the characteristics of the serpent and the dove, but this is what Jesus expects. We must combine the toughness of the serpent and the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart." - Martin Luther King Jr., Strengh to Love, Chapter One, "A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart"