Pacifist Quotes - Page 2

• I am an absolute pacifist...It is an instinctive feeling. It is a feeling that possesses me, because the murder of men is disgusting.

  Albert Einstein

  Men, Feelings, Insightful

  Interview with Paul Hutchinson, in Christian Century 28 Aug. 1929

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Theres no way that I could be the president. You cant have a pacifist in the White House... Im an actor. This is what I do for a living.

  Martin Sheen

  White, House, President

  9 Copy quote

• I'm really a pacifist.

  Oliver Reed

  Oliver Reed (1979). “Reed all about me: the autobiography of Oliver Reed”, W.H. Allen

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have always hated war and am by nature and philosophy a pacifist, but it is the English who are forcing war on us, and the first principle of war is to kill the enemy.

  Constance Markievicz

  Philosophy, War, Women

  110 Copy quote

• For realists, war is like surgery-a painful and dangerous activity that is sometimes necessary ... A pacifist is like a Christian Scientist who is against surgery even when the alternative is the crippling or death of the patient.

  Michael Lind

  Christian, War, Alternatives

  Michael Lind (2013). “Vietnam: The Necessary War”, p.220, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Among pacifists it was above all the English who always insisted on the importance of disarmament. They said that the man in the street would not understand the kind of pacifism that neglected to demand immediate restriction of armaments.

  Ludwig Quidde

  Men, Demand, Kind

  52 Copy quote

• Santa Claus wears a Red Suit, he must be a communist. And a beard and long hair, must be a pacifist. What's in that pipe that he's smoking?

  Arlo Guthrie

  Funny, Christmas, Hair

  53 Copy quote

• Pacifism means letting the non-pacifists have control ... Pacifism will remain an ideal, war a fact. If the white races are resolved never to wage war again, the colored will act differently and become rulers of the world.

  Oswald Spengler

  War, Mean, Race

  119 Copy quote

• The pacifist's task today is to find a method of helping and healing which provides a revolutionary constructive substitute for war.

  Vera Brittain

  Peace, War, Healing

  Vera Brittain (1964). “The Rebel Passion: A Short History of Some Pioneer Peacemakers”, London : G. Allen & Unwin

  68 Copy quote

  Show source

• When are we left-wingers going to learn that we are losing the cultural and political battle with conservatives because we are fractured into narcissistic special-interest groups? Why should an antiwar protestor be so concerned about her dietary identity? The political opinions of vegetarians and meat-eaters are, after all, equally important. And what does it tell us about vegetarians that it would never occur to meat-eaters to carry a sign that reads "Pacifist Pork Chop Lover for Peace" or "Backyard Rib Barbecuer for International Nuclear Disarmament"?

  Sherman Alexie

  Political Opinions, Nuclear Disarmament, Unity

  "Lefties Need to Love, Love, Love the White Working Class". Article by Sherman Alexie, www.thestranger.com. April 17, 2003.

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• Some pacifists have carried the sound idea of the prime importance of security too far, to the point of declaring that any consideration of disarmament is superfluous and pointless as long as eternal peace has not been attained.

  Ludwig Quidde

  Ideas, Long, Sound

  8 Copy quote

• It's funny how most activists are pacifists.

  Craig Reucassel

  Funny, Life, Activist

  12 Copy quote

• I must honor those who fight of their own free will, he said to himself. And I must try to imitate their courage by following my path as a pacifist, wherever it takes me.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Fighting, Honor, Trying

  "Christopher and His Kind". Book by Christopher Isherwood, p. 336, 1976.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• A pacifist has a lot of difficulty reconciling pacifism with scripture.

  Mark Driscoll

  Scripture, Pacifism, Difficulty

  "Mark Driscoll: 'Meek. Mild. As If'". Robert Lanham, Evangelical Right blog, October 3, 2006.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Each of us, even the lowliest and most insignificant among us, was uprooted from his innermost existence by the almost constant volcanic upheavals visited upon our European soil and, as one of countless human beings, I can't claim any special place for myself except that, as an Austrian, a Jew, writer, humanist and pacifist, I have always been precisely in those places where the effects of the thrusts were most violent.

  Stefan Zweig

  Special, Upheaval, Soil

  4 Copy quote

• Gert: Wake me when the fight scene's over. Kitty Pryde: Oy, tell me about it. Hey, I'm Kitty. You the token pacifist of your group? Gert: Not exactly. Pacifists are like vegans, I'm more of a vegetarian. I enjoy fish and occasional maulings.

  Brian K. Vaughan

  Fighting, Groups, Hey

  4 Copy quote

• It was the kind of sword that would make a lifelong pacifist look for tall boots and a hat with feathers.

  Ilona Andrews

  Hats, Looks, Boots

  Ilona Andrews (2010). “Magic Bleeds”, p.103, Penguin

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• It seems to me that the only thing for a pacifist to do is to find a substitute for war: mountains and seafaring are the only ones I know. But it must be something sufficiently serious not to be a game and sufficiently dangerous to exercise those virtues which otherwise get no chance.

  Freya Stark

  Peace, War, Exercise

  Freya Stark (1964). “The Journey's Echo: Selections”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• We were a savage little lot, Liverpool kids, not pacifist or vegetarian or anything. But I feel I've gone beyond that, and that it was immature to be so prejudiced and believe in all the stereotypes.

  Paul McCartney

  Believe, Kids, Immature

  Interview with Barbara Ellen, www.theguardian.com. July 17, 2010.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• The necessary consequence of man's right to life is his right to self-defense. In a civilized society, force may be used only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use. All the reasons which make the initiation of physical force an evil, make the retaliatory use of physical force a moral imperative. If some "pacifist" society renounced the retaliatory use of force, it would be left helplessly at the mercy of the first thug who decided to be immoral. Such a society would achieve the opposite of its intention: instead of abolishing evil, it would encourage and reward it.

  Ayn Rand

  Thug, Men, Self

  30 Copy quote

• In the wars against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, as in so many later conflicts, British women seem to have been no more markedly pacifist than men. Instead, and exactly like so many of their male countrymen, some women found ways of combining support for the national interest with a measure of self-promotion. By assisting the war effort, women demonstrated that their concerns were by no means confined to the domestic sphere. Under cover of a patriotism that was often genuine and profound, they carved out for themselves a real if precarious place in the public sphere.

  Linda Colley

  Real, War, Mean

  7 Copy quote

• Stop it," spluttered Eustace, "go away. Put that thing away. It's not safe. Stop it, I say. I'll tell Caspian. I'll have you muzzled and tied up." "Why do you not draw your own sword, poltroon!" cheeped the Mouse. "Draw and fight or I'll beat you black and blue with the flat." "I haven't got one," said Eustace. "I'm a pacifist. I don't believe in fighting." "Do I understand," said Reepicheep, withdrawing his sword for a moment and speaking very sternly, "that you do not intend to give me satisfaction?

  C. S. Lewis

  Believe, Fighting, Blue

  C. S. Lewis (2010). “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Enhanced Edition)”, p.28, Harper Collins

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• I could never have been a pacifist. To kill a man was surely to grant him an immeasurable benefit. Oh yes, people always, everywhere, loved their enemies. It was their friends they preserved for pain and vacuity.

  Graham Greene

  Pain, Men, People

  Graham Greene (1973). “The Collected Edition: The quiet American”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I shall die as I have lived, rationalist, socialist, pacifist, and humanitarian.

  Henry Stephens Salt

  Humanitarian, Socialist, Dies

  "Henry Salt, Humanitarian Reformer and Man of Letters". Book by George Hendrick, 1977.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Robert A. Heinlein has been an idol to me for more than 20 years. He can do no wrong, no matter how much he loves wars and hates pacifists.

  Robert Anton Wilson

  Hate, War, Years

  Source: theanarchistlibrary.org

  13 Copy quote

  Show source