Peace Quotes

"If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children." Mahatma Gandhi

"Let peace on earth begin with me."

"Peace is good for all peoples except profiteers." Gary Amirault
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The strongest passions and most dangerous weaknesses of the human breast; ambition, avarice, vanity, the honorable or venal love of fame, are all in conspiracy against the desire and duty of peace: James Madison
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He is not strong and powerful who throweth people down; but he is strong who witholdeth himself from anger: Muhammad  
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Do not say, that if the people do good to us, we will do good to them; and if the people oppress us, we will oppress them; but determine that if people do you good, you will do good to them; and if they oppress you, you will not oppress them: Muhammad  
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To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. Bible
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"Peace cannot come by force." Albert Einstein (Yet Einstein proposed the use of nuclear energy to the US government for military purposes. Hypocritical, perhaps?)
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“If you want peace, work for justice.” Pope Paul VI
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“The strongest passions and most dangerous weaknesses of the human breast; ambition, avarice, vanity, the honorable or venal love of fame, are all in conspiracy against the desire and duty of peace.” James Madison
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“I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.” Abraham Lincoln
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“Peace is more important than all justice; and peace was not made for the sake of justice, but justice for the sake of peace.” Martin Luther (1483-1546)
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“When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?” Eleanor Roosevelt
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“In 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.” Albert Camus:
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“We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace.” George W. Bush UN Speech Sept 2004
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“Peace is rarely denied to the peaceful.” Johann Von Schiller
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“An election is coming. Universal peace is declared and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.” T.S. Eliot
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“Yes, we love peace, but we are not willing to take wounds for it, as we are for war.” Andrew Holmes
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“It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.” Eleanor Roosevelt
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“The world will never have lasting peace so long as men reserve for war the finest human qualities. Peace, no less than war, requires idealism and self-sacrifice and a righteous and dynamic faith.” John Foster Dulles
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“But peace does not rest in the charters and covenants alone. It lies in the hearts and minds of all people. So let us not rest all our hopes on parchment and on paper, let us strive to build peace, a desire for peace, a willingness to work for peace in the hearts and minds of all of our people. I believe that we can. I believe the problems of human destiny are not beyond the reach of human beings.” John F. Kennedy
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“Peace hath higher tests of manhood than battle ever knew.” John Greenleaf Whittier
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“Better than a thousand useless words is one word that gives peace.” Buddha
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“Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“Peace we want because there is another war to fight against poverty, disease and ignorance.” Indira Gandhi, 1966
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“It is easier to lead men to combat, stirring up their passion, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labors of peace.” Andre Gide
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“There’s so many things going on in the world, Babies dying. Mothers crying. How much oil is one human life worth. And what ever happened to peace on earth.” Willie Nelson
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“We cannot have peace if we are only concerned with peace. War is not an accident. It is the logical outcome of a certain way of life. If we want to attack war, we have to attack that way of life.” A. J. Muste
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“If we don’t stop the bomb who will take care of the flowers?” Neil J. Seattle, Age 9
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“If we emphasize the life and works of our greatest contributors people will come to realize that moral courage is bravery of the highest type, and America will be called the ‘Champion of Peace.’” Senator Spark Matsunaga
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“Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations—entangling alliances with none.” Thomas Jefferson
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“We must be prepared to make heroic sacrifices for the cause of peace that we make ungrudgingly for the cause of war.” Albert Einstein
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“To judge from the history of mankind, we shall be compelled to conclude, that the fiery and destructive passions of war, reign in the human breast, with much more powerful sway, than the mild and beneficent sentiments of peace.” Alexander Hamilton
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“Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire; and where they make a wilderness, they call it peace.” Tacitus
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“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.” The Dalai Lama
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“Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.” Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969), 34th president of the United States
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“Mark! Where his carnage and his conquests cease, He makes a solitude and calls it—peace!” Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron), The Bride of Abydos (canto II, st. 20)
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“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war, that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.” Danielle Wolfe
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“Non-violence is a powerful and just weapon which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.” Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), clergyman, Civil Rights leader
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"Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience". - Thomas Merton
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Keep your eyes on the prince of peace, the one who doesn't cling to his divine power; the one who refuses to turn stones into bread, jump from great heights and rule with great power; the one who says, "Blessed are the poor, the gentle, those who mourn, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness; blessed are the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers and those who are persecuted in the cause of uprightness" (see Matt. 5:3-11); the one who touches the lame, the crippled, and the blind; the one who speaks words of forgiveness and encouragement; the one who dies alone, rejected and despised.  Keep your eyes on him who becomes poor with the poor, weak with the weak, and who is rejected with the rejected. He is the source of all peace.

Where is this peace to be found? The answer is clear.  In weakness. First of all, in our own weakness, in those places of our hearts where we feel most broken, most insecure, most in agony, most afraid. Why there? Because there our familiar ways of controlling our world are being stripped away; there we are called to let go from doing much, thinking much, and relying on our self-sufficiency. Right there where we are weakest the peace which is not of this world is hidden.

In Adam's name I say to you, "Claim that peace that remains unknown to so many and make it your own. Because with that peace in your heart you will have new eyes to see and new ears to hear and gradually recognize that same peace in places you would have least expected." "Adam's Story: The Peace That Is Not Of This World", Henri J.M. Nouwen.
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"Remember that we cannot give what we do not have. If we do not love ourselves, we will be hard pressed to love others. If we are not just with ourselves, we will find it very difficult to look for justice with others. In order to become and remain a social justice advocate, you must live a healthy life. Take care of yourself as well as others. Invest in yourself as well as in others. No one can build a house of justice on a foundation of injustice. Love yourself and be just to yourself and do the same with others. As you become a social justice advocate, you will experience joy, inspiration and love in abundant measure." - Bill Quigley
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".........And I smiled to think God's greatness flowed around our incompleteness Round our restlessness His rest." [Elizabeth Barrett Browning - 1806-1861]
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"We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery "

“When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.” Jiddu Krishnamurti
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"We do not want a PAX Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children -- not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women -- not merely peace in our time but peace for all time." John F. Kennedy (1963)

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