Peace quotes from around the world
View our dedicated pages to:
- Martin Luther King peace quotes
- Mahatma Gandhi peace quotes
- Thich Nhat Hanh peace quotes
- Albert Einstein peace quotes
- Muriel Lester peace quotes
“Peace comes from being able to contribute the best that we have, and all that we are, toward creating a world that supports everyone. But it is also securing the space for others to contribute the best that they have and all that they are.”
—Hafsat Abiola
“It is easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.”
—Alfred Adler
“No matter how big a nation is, it is no stronger that its weakest people, and as long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you might otherwise.”
—Marian Anderson
“Peace begins when the hungry are fed and the future begins when the hungry are educated.”
—Gene White
“Peace is the work of justice indirectly, in so far as justice removes the obstacles to peace; but it is the work of charity (love) directly, since charity, according to its very notion, causes peace.”
—Thomas Aquinas (view other articles on this site)
“When evil is allowed to compete with good, evil has an emotional populist appeal that wins out unless good men and women stand as a vanguard against abuse.”
—Hannah Arendt
“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”
—Hannah Arendt
“Peace is not the product of a victory or a command. It has no finishing line, no final deadline, no fixed definition of achievement. Peace is a never-ending process, the work of many decisions.”
—Oscar Arias
“In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?”
—St. Augustine
Joan Baez…
“That’s all nonviolence is — organized love.”
—Joan Baez (view other articles on this site)
“The only thing that’s been a worse flop than the organization of nonviolence has been the organization of violence.”
—Joan Baez (view other articles on this site)
“If it’s natural to kill, how come men have to go into training to learn how?”
—Joan Baez (view other articles on this site)
“The point of nonviolence is to build a floor, a strong new floor, beneath which we can no longer sink. A platform which stands a few feet above napalm, torture, exploitation, poison gas, A and H bombs, the works. Give man a decent place to stand.”
—Joan Baez (view other articles on this site)
“There have been periods of history in which episodes of terrible violence occurred but for which the word violence was never used. … Violence is shrouded in justifying myths that lend it moral legitimacy, and these myths for the most part kept people from recognizing the violence for what it was. The people who burned witches at the stake never for one moment thought of their act as violence; rather they though of it as an act of divinely mandated righteousness. The same can be said of most of the violence we humans have ever committed.”
—Gil Bailie
“The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”
—Steve Biko
“When you’re finally up on the moon, looking back at the earth, all these differences and nationalistic traits are pretty well going to blend and you’re going to get a concept that maybe this is really one world and why the hell can’t we learn to live together like decent people?”
—Frank Borman
“There is no time left for anything but to make peace work a dimension of our every waking activity.”
—Elise Boulding (view other articles on this site)
“We do not inherit the earth from our fathers. We borrow it from our children.”
—David Bower
“Violence in the voice is often only the death rattle of reason in the throat.”
—John Boyes
Daniel Berrigan…
“One is called to live nonviolently, even if the change one works for seems impossible. It may or may not be possible to turn the US around through nonviolent revolution. But one thing favors such an attempt: the total inability of violence to change anything for the better”
—Daniel Berrigan (view other articles on this site)
“The God of life summons us to life; more, to be lifegivers, especially toward those who lie under the heel of the powers.”
—Daniel Berrigan (view other articles on this site)
“Sometime in your life, hope that you might see one starved man, the look on his face when the bread finally arrives. Hope that you might have baked it or bought or even kneaded it yourself. For that look on his face, for your meeting his eyes across a piece of bread, you might be willing to lose a lot, or suffer a lot, or die a little, even.”
—Daniel Berrigan (view other articles on this site)
“We have assumed the name of peacemakers, but we have been, by and large, unwilling to pay any significant price. And because we want the peace with half a heart and half a life and will, the war, of course, continues, because the waging of war, by its nature, is total — but the waging of peace, by our own cowardice, is partial. So a whole will and a whole heart and a whole national life bent toward war prevail over the mere desire for peace. … There is no peace because the making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war — at least as exigent, at least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison and death in its wake.”
—Daniel Berrigan (view other articles on this site)
“We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living.”
—Omar Bradley
Buddha…
“In separateness lies the world’s great misery; in compassion lies the world’s true strength.”
—Buddha
“Better than a thousand hollow words, Is one word that brings peace.”
—Buddha
“Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.”
—Buddha
“He who can control his rising anger as a coachman controls his carriage at full speed, this man I call a good driver; others merely hold the reins.”
—Buddha
“Beneath the rule of men entirely great, The pen is mightier than the sword.”
—Edward George Bulwer-Lytton
“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist.”
—Helder Camara
Albert Camus…
“It is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners.”
—Albert Camus
“We used to wonder where war lived, what it was that made it so vile. And now we realize that we know where it lives, that it is inside ourselves.”
—Albert Camus
“Great ideas, it has been said, come into the world as gently as doves. Perhaps then, if we listen attentively, we shall hear amid the uproar of empires and nations, a faint flutter of wings, a gentle stirring of life and hope. Some will say that this hope lies in a nation; others in a person. I believe rather that it is awakened, revived, nourished by millions of solitary individuals whose deeds and works every day negate frontiers and the crudest implications of history. As a result, there shines forth fleetingly the ever-threatened truth that each and every person, on the foundation of his or her own sufferings and joys, builds for all.”
—Albert Camus, The Artist and His Time
“Until we have the courage to recognize cruelty for what it is — whether its victim is human or animal — we cannot expect things to be much better in this world. … We cannot have peace among men whose hearts delight in killing any living creature. By every act that glorifies or even tolerates such moronic delight in killing we set back the progress of humanity.”
—Rachel Carson
“The love of one’s country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?”
—Pablo Casals
“Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage. It takes courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act on it.”
—Pablo Casals
César Chávez…
“Nonviolence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.”
—César Chávez (view other articles on this site)
“The first principle of non-violent action is that of non-cooperation with everything humiliating.”
—César Chávez (view other articles on this site)
“Nonviolence is really tough. You don’t practice nonviolence at conferences; you practice it on picket-lines.”
—César Chávez (view other articles on this site)
“The non-violent technique does not depend for its success on the goodwill of the oppressor, but rather on the unfailing assistance of God.”
—César Chávez (view other articles on this site)
“There is no such thing as defeat in nonviolence.”
—César Chávez (view other articles on this site)
“You know, if people are not pacifists, it’s not their fault. It’s because society puts them in that spot. You’ve got to change it. You don’t just change a man — you’ve got to change his environment as you do it.”
—César Chávez (view other articles on this site)
“Through Gandhi and my own life experience, I have learned about nonviolence. I believe that human life is a very special gift from God, and that no one has a right to take that away in any cause, however just. I am convinced that nonviolence is more powerful than violence.”
—César Chávez (view other articles on this site)
“Nonviolence exacts a very high price from one who practices it. But once you are able to meet that demand then you can do most things.”
—César Chávez (view other articles on this site)
“Nonviolence is a very powerful weapon. Most people don’t understand the power of nonviolence and tend to be amazed by the whole idea. Those who have been involved in bringing about change and see the difference between violence and nonviolence are firmly committed to a lifetime of nonviolence, not because it is easy or because it is cowardly, but because it is an effective and very powerful way.”
—César Chávez (view other articles on this site)
“Nonviolence is not inaction. It is not discussion. It is not for the timid or weak. … Nonviolence is hard work. It is the willingness to sacrifice. It is the patience to win.”
—César Chávez (view other articles on this site)
“Violence just hurts those who are already hurt. … Instead of exposing the brutality of the oppressor, it justifies it.”
—César Chávez (view other articles on this site)
“We are convinced that nonviolence is more powerful than violence. We are convinced that nonviolence supports you if you have a just and moral cause … If you use violence, you have to sell part of yourself for that violence. Then you are no longer a master of your own struggle.”
—César Chávez (view other articles on this site)
“Sports plays a societal role in engendering jingoist and chauvinist attitudes. They’re designed to organize a community to be committed to their gladiators.”
—Noam Chomsky (view other articles on this site)
“The miracle of the wicked is reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous.”
—Winston Churchill
“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”
—Winston Churchill
William Sloane Coffin, Jr. …
“The cause of violence is not ignorance. It is self-interest. … Only reverence can restrain violence — reverence for human life and the environment.”
—William Sloane Coffin, Jr. (view other articles on this site)
“A spiritual person tries less to be godly than to be deeply human.”
—William Sloane Coffin, Jr. (view other articles on this site)
“To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice.”
—Confucius
“War is an invention of the human mind. The human mind can invent peace with justice.”
—Norman Cousins
“The idea of absolute freedom is fiction. It’s based on the idea of an independent self. But, in fact, there’s no such thing. There’s no self without other people. There’s no self without sunlight. There’s no self without dew. And water. And bees to pollinate the food we eat. … So the idea of behaving in a way that doesn’t acknowledge those reciprocal relationships is not really freedom, it’s indulgence.”
—Peter Coyote
“Peace, in the sense of absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold. Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free.”
—The 14th Dalai Lama (view other articles on this site)
“We suffer from an incurable malady: Hope”
—Mahmoud Darwish
Dorothy Day…
“It is penance to work, to give oneself to others, to endure the pinpricks of community living.”
—Dorothy Day (view other articles on this site)
“An act of love, a voluntary taking on oneself of some of the pain of the world, increases the courage and love and hope of all.”
—Dorothy Day (view other articles on this site)
“No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There is too much work to do.”
—Dorothy Day (view other articles on this site)
“We plant seeds that will flower as results in our lives, so best to remove the weeds of anger, avarice, envy and doubt, that peace and abundance may manifest for all.”
—Dorothy Day (view other articles on this site)
“Young people say, What is the sense of our small effort? They cannot see that we must lay one brick at at time, take one step at a time; we can be responsible only for the one action in the present moment. But we can beg for an increase of love in our hearts that will vitalize and transform all our individual actions, and know that God will take them and multiply them, as Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes.”
—Dorothy Day (view other articles on this site)
“War stirs in men’s hearts the mud of their worst instincts. It puts a premium on violence, nourishes hatred, and gives free rein to cupidity. It crushes the weak, exalts the unworthy, and bolsters tyranny .. .Time and time again it has destroyed all ordered living, devastated hope, and put the prophets to death.”
—Charles DeGaulle
“If there is light in the soul, there will be beauty in the person. If there is beauty in the person, there will be harmony in the house. If there is harmony in the house, there will be order in the nation. If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world.”
—Chinese proverb
“Very few people chose war. They chose selfishness and the result was war. Each of us, individually and nationally, must choose: total love or total war.”
—Dave Dellinger
“Nobody was born nonviolent. No one was born charitable. None of us comes to these things by nature but only by conversion. The first duty of the nonviolent community is helping its members work upon themselves and come to conversion.”
—Lanza del Vasto
“No man is an island entire of itself … any man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
“At some ideas you stand perplexed, especially at the sight of human sins, uncertain whether to combat it by force or by human love. Always decide, “I will combat it with human love.” If you make up your mind about that once and for all, you can conquer the whole world. Loving humility is a terrible force; it is the strongest of all things and there is nothing like it.”
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
“The first thing to be disrupted by our commitment to nonviolence will be not the system but our own lives.”
—James Douglass
“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.”
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
“I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that the people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.”
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
“Nonviolence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.”
—Thomas Edison
“War is obsolete. We are not here to fight something or tear something down; We are here to be the example of what is possible. Any sane individual will tell you that violence is … not the way …”
—Buckminster Fuller
“Women prevent the threads of life from being broken. The finest minds have always understood the peacemaking role of women.”
—Mikhail Gorbachev
Hildegard Goss-Mayr…
“The first essential characteristics of nonviolent action is that it is creative.”
—Hildegard Goss-Mayr (view other articles on this site)
“It belongs to the very substance of nonviolence never to destroy or damage another person’s feeling of self worth, even an opponent’s. We all need, constantly, an advance of trust and affirmation.”
—Bernard Haring
“Nuclear war is inevitable, says the pessimists; nuclear war is impossible, says the optimists; nuclear war is inevitable unless we make it impossible, says the realists.”
—Sydney J. Harris
“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of humans as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is not safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”
—Helen Keller
“The best preparedness is the one that disarms the hostility of other nations and makes friends of them.”
—Helen Keller
“War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.”
—John F. Kennedy (view other articles on this site)
“Why is it so easy for us to be willing to pick up arms and risk our lives, and so difficult to put down those same weapons and still risk our lives — in the cause of life?”
—Ramzi Kysia
“I believe we are on the edge of a quantum leap into a whole new way of organizing and living as a human family.”
—Mairéad Corrigan Maguire
“So instead of loving what you think is peace, love other [people] and love God above all. And instead of hating the people you think are warmakers, hate the appetites and the disorder in your own soul, which are the causes of war. If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed — but hate these things in yourself, not in another.”
—Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation
“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.”
—Oscar Romero
“Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.”
—Theodore Roosevelt
“In the hearts of people today there is a deep longing for peace. When the true spirit of peace is thoroughly dominant, it becomes an inner experience with unlimited possibilities. Only when this really happens — when the spirit of peace awakens and takes possession of men’s hearts, can humanity be saved from perishing.”
—Albert Schweitzer
“My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.”
—Desmond Tutu (view other articles on this site)
Images: Photo of dove taken in Emamshahr, Iran, by Hamid Najafi. Photo of soldier taken in Rawa, Anbar Province, Iraq, by Jayel Aheram. Both photos used under a Creative Commons license.
