Non Violent Quotes - Page 2

• The kind of values for which I was supposed to kill, such as democracy and national independence, were better served, I thought, through non-violent action.

  Torbjorn Tannsjo

  Independence, Democracy, Action

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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• Defenders of the system will counter by saying this drug war has been aimed at violent crime. But that is not the case. The overwhelming majority of people arrested in the drug war have been arrested for relatively minor, non-violent drug offenses.

  Michelle Alexander

  War, People, Drug

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• What defenders of the system typically fail to acknowledge is that the reason violent offenders comprise a fairly large percentage of the state prison population is because they typically receive longer sentences than non-violent offenders.

  Michelle Alexander

  Prison Population, Failing, Reason

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• I do believe that non-violent civil disobedience is a very important and useful tactic.

  Cleve Jones

  Believe, Important, Tactics

  Source: www.bilerico.com

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• I think that many of the mobilizations against the wars waged by the US and its allies since 2001 have been non-violent and massive. We have seen them throughout European capitals and in the US, and in many other parts of the world as well. So it is not only imaginable, but already actual.

  Judith Butler

  War, Thinking, Allies

  Interview with Cihan Aksan and Jon Bailes, www.counterpunch.org. October 11, 2013.

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• Islamism implies some sort of political and social plan for Muslim people. In that classification, we find different categories. Legalist ones, traditional ones and revolutionary ones. Some of them are revolutionary but are non-violent, others are extremely violent. There are also the ones we call the literalists, like the Egyptian party Hizb al-Nour that used to be against democracy and now is getting into the political game.

  Tariq Ramadan

  Party, Games, People

  "INTERVIEW: Tariq Ramadan on political Islam's 'necessary crisis'". Interview with Hassina Mechaï, www.middleeasteye.net. April 2, 2016.

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• I don’t believe in eye-for-an-eye. The most incredible, sustainable, beautiful movements have been non-violent movements of civil disobedience.

  Ellen Page

  Beautiful, Believe, Eye

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• Anything that is non-violent is OK with me.

  Jasmine Guy

  Atheism, Violent

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• Prison is an important part of life. We can't have violent people running around in the streets. (3 out of 4 federal prisoners are serving time for non-violent crimes.) Most competent and qualified kindergarden teachers can tell you who the 5 kids are in his or her class likely to wind up in prison 15 - 20 years from now.

  Howard Dean

  Running, Teacher, Kids

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• When the democratic deficit is so enormous, people are left with very little option but to take peaceful, non-violent direct action.

  Caroline Lucas

  Direct Action, People, Peaceful

  "Caroline Lucas among dozens arrested in Balcombe anti-fracking protest" by Fiona Harvey, Peter Walker, www.theguardian.com. August 19, 2013.

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• Democracy is disruptive. Around the world, peaceful protesters are being demonised for this, but there is no right in a democratic civil society to be free of disruption. Protesters ideally should read Gandhi and King and dedicate themselves to disciplined, long-term, non-violent disruption of business as usual - especially disruption of traffic.

  Naomi Wolf

  Kings, Long, Peaceful

  "How to Occupy the moral and political high ground" by Naomi Wolf, www.theguardian.com. November 5, 2011.

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• Non violence is not a thing that comes easily. You have to learn how to be non-violent

  Betty Williams

  Violence, Violent, Non Violence

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• I'm a very great non-violent character. I would never resort to violence to change anything.

  Bob Brown

  Character, Violence, Violent

  "Bob Brown and the media: 'I'll take them on ... they've crossed the line'". Interview with John Keane, theconversation.com. June 2, 2011.

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• And the distinction between violent and non-violent action is that the former is exclusively bent upon the destruction of the old, and the latter is chiefly concerned with the establishment of something new.

  Hannah Arendt

  Action, Violent, Something New

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• The non-violent resistor not only avoids external, physical violence, but he avoids internal violence of spirit. He not only refuses to shoot his opponent, but he refuses to hate him. And he stands with understanding, goodwill at all times.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Hate, Understanding, Opponents

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• But there is another way. And that is to organize mass non-violent resistance based on the principle of love. It seems to me that this is the only way as our eyes look to the future. As we look out across the years and across the generations, let us develop and move right here. We must discover the power of love, the power, the redemptive power of love. And when we discover that we will be able to make of this old world a new world. We will be able to make men better. Love is the only way.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Life, Moving, Eye

  "Loving Your Enemies". Sermon by Martin Luther King, Jr. at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama, November 17, 1957.

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• It is the other way round: food cannot make you spiritual, but if you are spiritual your food habits will change. Eating anything will not make much difference. You can be a vegetarian and cruel to the extreme, and violent; you can be a non-vegetarian and kind and loving. Food will not make much difference. In India there are communities who have lived totally with vegetarian food; many Brahmins have lived totally with vegetarian food. They are non-violent but they are not spiritual.

  Rajneesh

  Spiritual, Vegetarianism, Differences

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• I make a distinction between Buddhism with a Capital 'B' and buddhism with a small 'b'. Sri Lanka has the former, in which the state uses Buddhism as an instrument of power, so there are even Buddhists monks who say the Tamils should be eliminated. Thai Buddhists are not perfect either. Some Thai Buddhist monks have compromised with the kind and possess cars and other luxuries. In many Buddhist countries, the emphasis is on being goody-goody, which is not good enough. I am for buddhism with a small 'b' which is non-violent, practical and aims to eliminate the cause of suffering.

  Sulak Sivaraksa

  Country, Buddhist, Humility

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• Evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda's leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force may sometimes be necessary is not a call to cynicism - it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.

  Barack Obama

  Army, Men, Evil

  Nobel Prize for Peace Acceptance Speech and Lecture, delivered 10 December 2009, Oslo City Hall, Oslo, Norway

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• A non-violent revolution is not a program of seizure of power. It is a program of transformation of relationships, ending in a peaceful transfer of power.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Justice, Diversity, Peaceful

  Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Merton (2007). “Gandhi on Non-Violence”, p.40, New Directions Publishing

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• And in the racial climate of this country today, it is anybody's guess which of the 'extremes' in approach to the black man's problems might personally meet a fatal catastrophe first - 'non-violent' Dr. King, or so-called 'violent' me.

  Malcolm X

  Country, Kings, Men

  Malcolm X (2015). “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”, p.384, Ballantine Books

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• Pacifism, to me, is primarily a way of actively struggling against injustice and inhumanity; My kind of pacifism may be called "non-violent resistance".

  Dwight Macdonald

  Struggle, May, Way

  "Radical Pacifism: The War Resisters League and Gandhian Nonviolence in America, 1915-1963" by Scott H. Bennett, Syracuse University Press, 2003.

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• Photography is the most direct communication in non-violent contacts.

  Robert Rauschenberg

  Photography, Communication, Violent

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• Non-violence and cowardice are contradictory terms. Non-violence is the greatest virtue, cowardice the greatest vice. Non-violence springs from love, cowardice from hate. Non-violence always suffers, cowardice would always inflict suffering. Perfect non-violence is the highest bravery. Non-violent conduct is never demoralising; cowardice always is.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Courage, Hate, Spring

  Mahatma Gandhi, Anand T. Hingorani, Ganga Anand Hingorani (1985). “The Encyclopaedia of Gandhian Thoughts”

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• A man who thinks that death is against life can never be non-violent. It is impossible. A man who thinks that death is the enemy can never be at ease, at home. That is impossible. How can you be at ease when the enemy is waiting for you any moment? It will jump on you and destroy you. How can you be non-tense when death is waiting just around the corner and the shadow of death is always falling on you? It can happen any moment. How can you rest when death is there? How can you relax? The enemy won't allow you to relax.

  Rajneesh

  Death, Fall, Home

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