[I]n such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners.
A democracy which makes or even effectively prepares for modern, scientific war must necessarily cease to be democratic. No country can be really well prepared for modern war unless it is governed by a tyrant, at the head of a highly trained and perfectly obedient bureaucracy.
Till the war-drum throbb`d no longer, and the battle-flags were furl`d; In the parliament of man; the Federation of the world.
"One of the main reasons that it is so easy to march men off to war," says Ernest Becker, is that "each of them feels sorry for the man next to him who will die."
We make war that we may live in peace.
In time of war the loudest patriots are the greatest profiteers.
Wars and elections are both too big and too small to matter in the long run. The daily work - that goes on, it adds up.
There's a graveyard in northern France where all the dead boys from D-Day are buried. The white crosses reach from one horizon to the other. I remember looking it over and thinking it was a forest of graves. But the rows were like this, dizzying, diagonal, perfectly straight, so after all it wasn't a forest but an orchard of graves. Nothing to do with nature, unless you count human nature.
There never was a good war or a bad peace.
Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarrelled with him?
Everyone's a pacifist between wars. It's like being a vegetarian between meals.
Warmaking doesn't stop warmaking. If it did, our problems would have stopped millennia ago.
In peace the sons bury their fathers, but in war the fathers bury their sons.
The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations.
They have not wanted Peace at all; they have wanted to be spared war -- as though the absence of war was the same as peace.
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. [1953]
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
April 16, 1953
For everything there is a season,
And a time for every matter under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
A time to tear, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate,
A time for war, and a time for peace.Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?
I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed. I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war.
I know war as few other men now living know it, and nothing to me is more revolting. I have long advocated its complete abolition, as its very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a method of settling international disputes.
Peace is not only better than war, but infinitely more arduous.
No, I know all the war rhetoric, but it's all aimed at achieving peace.
I've been to war. I've raised twins. If I had a choice, I'd rather go to war.
There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the enemy.
I do not mean to exclude altogether the idea of patriotism. I know it exists, and I know it has done much in the present contest. But I will venture to assert, that a great and lasting war can never be supported on this principle alone. It must be aided by a prospect of interest, or some reward.
War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men.
A nice war is a war where everybody who is heroic is a hero, and everybody more or less is a hero in a nice war. Now this war is not at all a nice war.
1943
I hate war for its consequences, for the lies it lives on and propagates, for the undying hatreds it arouses, for the dictatorships it puts in the place of democracies, and for the starvation that stalks after it. I hate war, and never again will I sanction or support another.
Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country. quote verified at snopes.com
Religion and science both profess peace (and the sincerity of the professors is not being doubted), but each always turns out to have a dominant part in any war that is going or contemplated.
During times of war, hatred becomes quite respectable, even though it has to masquerade often under the guise of patriotism.
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
It is not only the living who are killed in war.
We kind o' thought Christ went agin war an' pillage.
You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.
I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.
The wave of the future is not the conquest of the world by a single dogmatic creed but the liberation of the diverse energies of free nations and free men.
It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.
Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory. It can no longer serve to settle disputes. It can no longer be of concern to great powers alone. For a nuclear disaster, spread by winds and waters and fear, could well engulf the great and the small, the rich and the poor, the committed and the uncommitted alike. Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.
War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature, and has no chance of being free unless made or kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
War is a malignant disease, an idiocy, a prison, and the pain it
causes is beyond telling or meaning; but war was our condition
and our history, the place we had to live in.
Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.
It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! March 23, 1775
Either war is obsolete or men are.
There are no warlike people, just warlike leaders.
The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war.
Before a war military science seems a real science, like astronomy; but after a war it seems more like astrology.
It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.
History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.
A self-respecting nation is ready for anything, including war, except for a renunciation of its option to make war.
Peace is not the absence of war; it is a virtue; a state of mind; a disposition for benevolence; confidence; and justice.
To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. (1918)
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.
If there must be trouble let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.
You can't say civilization don't advance -- for in every war, they kill you in a new way.
Alex Noble:One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one.
Andre Trocme:If I have been of service, if I have glimpsed more of the nature and essence of ultimate good, if I am inspired to reach wider horizons of thought and action, if I am at peace with myself, it has been a successful day.
Anton Chekov:All who affirm the use of violence admit it is only a means to achieve justice and peace. But peace and justice are nonviolence...the final end of history. Those who abandon nonviolence have no sense of history. Rather they are bypassing history, freezing history, betraying history.
Aristotle:We shall find peace. We shall hear angels. We shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.
Benjamin Franklin:We make war that we may live in peace.
Carl Sandburg:There never was a good war or a bad peace.
Carl Schurz:Choose
The single clenched fist lifted and ready,
Or the open hand held out and waiting.
Choose:
For we meet by one or the other.
Colman McCarthy:The peace and welfare of this and coming generations of Americans will be secure only as we cling to the watchword of true patriotism: "Our country -- when right to be kept right; when wrong to be put right."
Croesus:Everyone's a pacifist between wars. It's like being a vegetarian between meals.
Dag Hammarskjold:In peace the sons bury their fathers, but in war the fathers bury their sons.
Dorothy Thompson:Never, "for the sake of peace and quiet," deny your own experience or convictions.
Dorothy Thompson:They have not wanted Peace at all; they have wanted to be spared war -- as though the absence of war was the same as peace.
Dorothy Thompson:Peace has to be created, in order to be maintained. It is the product of Faith, Strength, Energy, Will, Sympathy, Justice, Imagination, and the triumph of principle. It will never be achieved by passivity and quietism.
Dwight D. Eisenhower:Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of creative alternatives for responding to conflict -- alternatives to passive or aggressive responses, alternatives to violence.
Ecclesiastes:We seek peace, knowing that peace is the climate of freedom.
George Bernard Shaw:For everything there is a season,
And a time for every matter under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
A time to tear, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate,
A time for war, and a time for peace.Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
George W. Bush:Peace is not only better than war, but infinitely more arduous.
George Washington:No, I know all the war rhetoric, but it's all aimed at achieving peace.
H. H. the Dalai Lama:There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the enemy.
HH the Dalai Lama:I believe that to meet the challenges of our times, human beings will have to develop a greater sense of universal responsibility. Each of us must learn to work not just for oneself, one's own family or nation, but for the benefit of all humankind. Universal responsibility is the key to human survival. It is the best foundation for world peace.
HH the Dalai Lama:Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture inflicted on a prisoner of conscience. It does not comfort those who have lost their loved ones in floods caused by senseless deforestation in a neighboring country. Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free.
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HH the Dalai Lama:Responsibility does not only lie with the leaders of our countries or with those who have been appointed or elected to do a particular job. It lies with each of us individually. Peace, for example, starts within each one of us. When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us.
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Helen Keller:When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:I do not want the peace that passeth understanding. I want the understanding which bringeth peace.
Hermann Goering:I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play
And mild and sweet the words repeat,
Of peace on earth, good will to men.I thought how as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had roll'd along th' unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.And in despair I bow'd my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong, and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."
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Howard Nemerov:Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country. quote verified at snopes.com
Indira Gandhi:Religion and science both profess peace (and the sincerity of the professors is not being doubted), but each always turns out to have a dominant part in any war that is going or contemplated.
James Russell Lowell:You can't shake hands with a clenched fist.
Jimi Hendrix:We kind o' thought Christ went agin war an' pillage.
John F. Kennedy:When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.
John F. Kennedy:It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.
John F. Kennedy:Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John Harricharan:Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory. It can no longer serve to settle disputes. It can no longer be of concern to great powers alone. For a nuclear disaster, spread by winds and waters and fear, could well engulf the great and the small, the rich and the poor, the committed and the uncommitted alike. Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.
John Lennon:Peace is not achieved by controlling nations, but mastering our thoughts.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu:Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will live as one.
M. Scott Peck:While conscience is our friend, all is at peace; however once it is offended, farewell to a tranquil mind.
Maha Ghosananda:There can be no vulnerability without risk; there can be no community without vulnerability; there can be no peace, and ultimately no life, without community.
Maria Montessori:When you make peace with yourself, you make peace with the world.
Marian Wright Edelman:Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.
Mark Twain:[W]e are not going to deal with the violence in our communities, our homes, and our nation, until we learn to deal with the basic ethic of how we resolve our disputes and to place an emphasis on peace in the way we relate to one another.
Martin Luther King, Jr.:Peace by persuasion has a pleasant sound, but I think we should not be able to work it. We should have to tame the human race first, and history seems to show that that cannot be done.
Martin Luther King, Jr.:One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal we seek, but that it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means.
Mohandas K. Gandhi:True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.
Mohandas K. Gandhi:I first learned the concepts of non-violence in my marriage.
Moshe Dayan:Non-cooperation is a measure of discipline and sacrifice, and it demands respect for the opposite views.
Omar N. Bradley:If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.
Oscar Romero:Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.
Peyton Conway March:Peace is not the product of terror or fear.
Peace is not the silence of cemeteries.
Peace is not the silent result of violent repression.
Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all.
Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity.
It is right and it is duty.
R. Buckminster Fuller:There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life -- happiness, freedom, and peace of mind -- are always attained by giving them to someone else.
Ralph Waldo Emerson:Either war is obsolete or men are.
Ralph Waldo Emerson:A political victory, a rise in rents, the recovery of your sick, or return of your absent friend, or some other quite external event, raises your spirits, and you think good days are preparing for you. Do not believe it. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.
from "Self-Reliance"
Ramona L. Anderson:The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war.
Simone Weil:People spend a lifetime searching for happiness; looking for peace. They chase idle dreams, addictions, religions, even other people, hoping to fill the emptiness that plagues them. The irony is the only place they ever needed to search was within.
Spinoza:A self-respecting nation is ready for anything, including war, except for a renunciation of its option to make war.
Thich Nhat Hanh:Peace is not the absence of war; it is a virtue; a state of mind; a disposition for benevolence; confidence; and justice.
Thich Nhat Hanh:The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.
Thomas Jefferson:Everyday we do things, we are things that have to do with peace. If we are aware of our life..., our way of looking at things, we will know how to make peace right in the moment, we are alive.
Thomas Paine:The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.
Thomas a Kempis:If there must be trouble let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.
Unknown:First keep the peace within yourself, then you can also bring peace to others.
Unknown:Symptoms of Inner Peace
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William E. Gladstone :The great teachings unanimously emphasize that all the peace, wisdom, and joy in the universe are already within us; we don't have to gain, develop, or attain them. We're like a child standing in a beautiful park with his eyes shut tight. We don't need to imagine trees, flowers, deer, birds, and sky; we merely need to open our eyes and realize what is already here, who we really are -- as soon as we quit pretending we're small or unholy.
William Ury:We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.
We tend to think the problem is human beings have this natural tendency to kill, and yet in the middle of a hot war, WWII, a "good war," as it were, the US army was astonished to learn that at least three out of every four riflemen who were trained to kill and commanded to kill, could not bring themselves to pull the trigger when they could see the person they were ordered to kill. And that inner resistance to violence is a well kept secret.