Pacifist Quotes - Page 2

• 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

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• 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

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• I'm really a pacifist.

  Oliver Reed

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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• Talk of world peace is heard today only among the white peoples, and not among the much more numerous coloured races. This is a perilous state of affairs. When individual thinkers and idealists talk of peace, as they have done since time immemorial, the effect is negligible. But when whole peoples become pacifistic it is a symptom of senility. Strong and unspent races are not pacifistic. To adopt such a position is to abandon the future, for the pacifist ideal is a terminal condition that is contrary to the basic facts of existence. As long as man continues to evolve, there will be wars.

  Oswald Spengler

  Strong, War, Men

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• 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.

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• I said, "OK, Ammon [Hennacy], I will try that." He said, "You came into the world armed to the teeth. With an arsenal of weapons, weapons of privilege, economic privilege, sexual privilege, racial privilege. You want to be a pacifist, you're not just going to have to give up guns, knives, clubs, hard, angry words, you are going to have lay down the weapons of privilege and go into the world completely disarmed."

  Utah Phillips

  Giving Up, Gun, Knives

  Interview with David Kupfer, progressive.org. September 1, 2003.

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• I'm a pacifist. I don't believe in 'good' wars.

  Wendy Doniger

  War, Believe, Good War

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• Indeed; peace literature is almost exclusively read, though to good effect, by pacifists, while what is needed is the canvassing of those who have not so far been won to the cause.

  Fredrik Bajer

  Literature, Causes, Needed

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• In a world built on violence, one must be a revolutionary before one can be a pacifist.

  A. J. Muste

  World, Violence, Revolutionary

  "American Power and the New Mandarins". Book by Noam Chomsky, 1969.

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• 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.

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• Thomas Jefferson once said: 'Of course the people don't want war. But the people can be brought to the bidding of their leader. All you have to do is tell them they're being attacked and denounce the pacifists for somehow a lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.' I think that was Jefferson. Oh wait. That was Hermann Goering. Shoot." [Hosting the Peabody Awards for broadcasting excellence at the New York Waldorf-Astoria, June 6, 2006]

  Jon Stewart

  Country, New York, War

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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”

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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

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• 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

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