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.
But from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.
Things refuse to be mismanaged long.
Theodore Parker, 1853 calling for abolition of American slavery
“Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Martin Luther King Jr. 1964 on struggle against economic and racial injustice
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot on the preservation of Earth