Oscar Arias Quotes

• The more freedom we enjoy, the greater the responsibility we bear, toward others as well as ourselves.

  Oscar Arias

  Peace, Freedom, Responsibility

  23 Copy quote

• The existence of nuclear weapons presents a clear and present danger to life on Earth.

  Oscar Arias

  Nuclear Disarmament, Earth, Weapons

  68 Copy quote

• Peace is not a dream; it is hard work, and there is nothing naive, glamorous or simplistic about it.

  Oscar Arias

  Dream, Peace, Hard Work

  13 Copy quote

• The existence of nuclear weapons presents a clear and present danger to life on Earth. Nuclear arms cannot bolster the security of any nation because they represent a threat to the security of the human race. These incredibly destructive weapons are an affront to our common humanity, and the tens of billions of dollars that are dedicated to their development and maintenance should be used instead to alleviate human need and suffering

  Oscar Arias

  Common Humanity, Nuclear Disarmament, Race

  62 Copy quote

• War, and the preparation for war, are the two greatest obstacles to human progress, fostering a vicious cycle of arms buildups, violence and poverty.

  Oscar Arias

  War, Two, Preparation

  14 Copy quote

• The best way to perpetuate poverty is spending on arms, and poverty itself is a form of violence. The wealthy industrialized countries have been too slow to recognize this. I hope that in this new century and new millennium, the world will learn that if you want peace, you must prepare for peace, plan for peace, work for it, and comply with its dictates. Lasting peace will never be achieved with the instruments of war.

  Oscar Arias

  Country, War, World

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  12 Copy quote

• My country is a country of teachers. It is therefore a country of peace. We discuss our successes and failures in complete freedom. Because our country is a country of teachers, we closed the army camps, and our children go about with books under their arms, not with rifles on their shoulders. We believe in dialogue, in agreement, in reaching a consensus.

  Oscar Arias

  Country, Teacher, Children

  9 Copy quote

• Peace is a never-ending process, the work of many decisions by many people in many countries. It is an attitude, a way of life, a way of solving problems and resolving conflicts. It cannot be forced on the smallest nation or enforced by the largest. It cannot ignore our differences or overlook our common interests. It requires us to work and live together.

  Oscar Arias

  Country, Peace, Attitude

  9 Copy quote

• Peace is a never ending process... It cannot ignore our differences or overlook our common interests. It requires us to work and live together.

  Oscar Arias

  Peace, Differences, Together

  9 Copy quote

• I cannot accept that to be realistic means to tolerate misery, violence and hate. I do not believe that the hungry man should be treated as subversive for expressing his suffering. I shall never accept that the law can be used to justify tragedy, to keep things as they are, to make us abandon our ideas of a different world. Law is the path of liberty, and must as such open the way to progress for everyone.

  Oscar Arias

  Hate, Believe, Mean

  23 Copy quote

• Hope is the strongest driving force for a people. Hope which brings about change, which produces new realities, is what opens man's road to freedom.

  Oscar Arias

  Freedom, Men, Reality

  16 Copy quote

• The effect of one good-hearted person is incalculable.

  Oscar Arias

  Kindness, Good Hearted, Persons

  8 Copy quote

• Peace consists, very largely, in the fact of desiring it with all one's soul. The inhabitants of my small country, Costa Rica, have realized those words by Erasmus. Mine is an unarmed people, whose children have never seen a fighter or a tank or a warship.

  Oscar Arias

  Country, Peace, Children

  7 Copy quote

• The most deadly disease truly is the failure of the heart.

  Oscar Arias

  Peace, Heart, Words Of Wisdom

  4 Copy quote

• Justice and peace can only thrive together, never apart.

  Oscar Arias

  Justice, Together, Thrive

  42 Copy quote

• Nuclear arms kill many people all at once, but other weapons kill many people, little by little, every day, everywhere in the world.

  Oscar Arias

  People, Nuclear, World

  4 Copy quote

• Peace consists, very largely, in the fact of desiring it with all one's soul.

  Oscar Arias

  Peace, Soul, Facts

  7 Copy quote

• Action had to be taken in response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, but I am very concerned about the current administration's rhetoric and apparent zeal to expand military action to other places. I'm afraid that terrorism is being used as an excuse, not only for possible military action in such places as Iraq, Iran, and the Philippines, but also for exorbitant increases in defense spending that have nothing to do with terrorism.

  Oscar Arias

  Military, Taken, September 11

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  4 Copy quote

• The problem with basing weapons sales on strategic interest is that these interests tend to shift over time, while weapons are durable goods that do not evaporate as quickly as some alliances do. Once supplied, they can't be taken back. That leads to situations such as the ones we have seen in Iraq, Somalia.

  Oscar Arias

  Taken, Problem, Interest

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  4 Copy quote

• It's clear to me that many weapons sales are very short-sighted. The U.S. and other arms-producing countries sell weapons for a variety of reasons, but most sales involve strategic interest or profit motivation, or both.

  Oscar Arias

  Country, Motivation, Reason

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  5 Copy quote

• We are calling on countries that supply weapons to comply with certain restrictions: not to sell weapons to human rights abusers, not to sell them to governments or groups carrying out aggression against states, not to make weapons sales that could disrupt security or development in the receiving region. These are in many ways common sense principles, but sadly, there seems to be very little common sense in the international arms trade.

  Oscar Arias

  Country, Common Sense, Human Rights

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  4 Copy quote

• It is essential that justice be done, and it is equally vital that justice not be confused with revenge, for the two are wholly different.

  Oscar Arias

  Revenge, Confused, Two

  16 Copy quote

• Hope is the strongest driving force for a people. Hope which brings about change, which produces new realities, is what opens man's road to freedom. Once hope has taken hold, courage must unite with wisdom. That is the only way of avoiding violence, the only way of maintaining the calm one needs to respond peacefully to offenses.

  Oscar Arias

  Wisdom, Courage, Freedom

  10 Copy quote

• For ages the world has been living by the stupidity of an old Roman adage that says if you want peace, prepare for war. As if anything said in ancient times must be wise, people have used this phrase to justify some of the most unjustifiable arms build-ups, which, far from creating peace, has only become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

  Oscar Arias

  Wise, War, People

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  4 Copy quote

• While the armed forces have intervened in the political affairs of every other Central American country over the past fifty years, with disastrous results, in Costa Rica we have peacefully transferred power from one administration to the next every four years.

  Oscar Arias

  Country, Past, Political

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  4 Copy quote

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