For those of you whose Facebook friends didn't share the quote, it goes something like this:
"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."
The Atlantic wrote that the quote was, indeed, fabricated -- saying: "It's a bit too a propos. What 'thousands' would King have been talking about? In which enemy's death was he supposed to be rejoicing?"
The article then goes on to ask: "Someone made up a quote, attributed it to MLK Jr., and disseminated it widely, all within 24 hours. Why? What do you get out of saying something pithy, and getting no credit for it?"
That's not exactly how it went down. A good portion of the quote is, in fact, real -- it comes from King's book Strength to Love (keep reading before and after the words in question -- it's a good read).
Salon reported earlier that the quote came from magician Penn Jillette (yes, of Penn & Teller fame), who tweeted the quote around 20 hours ago. Upon receiving heat from followers about its validity, Jillette responded: "I checked a long quote from MLK's 'Strength to love' 1963 that spoke to some of my feelings, then I cut and pasted an altered hunk. Sorry."
This morning however, the Detroit Free Press reported that the first sentence -- the part referencing "thousands" supposedly comes from Twitter user Jessica Dovey, who tweeted this morning at Jillette: "I am the original author of the 'MLK' quote. Somewhere my words got mixed with his." Jillette then retweeted her tweet containing the admission.
Dovey also sent him the following screenshot:
