Peace Quotes - Page 27

• A large group of us were crowded into the Gestapo hall, and at that moment the circumstances of all our lives were the same. All of us occupied the same space, the men behind the desk no less than those about to be questioned. What distinguished each of us was only our inner attitude.

  Etty Hillesum

  Attitude, Men, Space

  Etty Hillesum, K. A. D. Smelik, Arnold Pomerans (2002). “Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943”, p.258, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

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• We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers.

  Bayard Rustin

  Ubuntu, Community, Groups

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• We used to have a War Office, but now we have a Ministry of Defence, nuclear bombs are now described as deterrents, innocent civilians killed in war are now described as collateral damage and military incompetence leading to US bombers killing British soldiers is cosily described as friendly fire. Those who are in favour of peace are described as mavericks and troublemakers, whereas the real militants are those who want the war.

  Tony Benn

  Military, Real, War

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• The God of life summons us to life; more, to be lifegivers, especially toward those who lie under the heel of the powers.

  Daniel Berrigan

  Lying, Those Who Lie, Heels

  Daniel Berrigan (1996). “Isaiah: Spirit of Courage, Gift of Tears”, Augsburg Fortress Publishing

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• Sometime in your life, hope that you might see one starved man, the look on his face when the bread finally arrives. Hope that you might have baked it or bought or even kneaded it yourself. For that look on his face, for your meeting his eyes across a piece of bread, you might be willing to lose a lot, or suffer a lot, or die a little, even.

  Daniel Berrigan

  Eye, Men, Diversity

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• There never has been a war yet which, if the facts had been put calmly before the ordinary folk, could not have been prevented ... The common man, I think, is the great protection against war.

  Ernest Bevin

  War, Thinking, Men

  Hansard 23 Nov. 1945, col. 786

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• The followers of Christ have been called to peace. . . . And they must not only have peace but make it. And to that end they renounce all violence and tumult. In the cause of Christ nothing is to be gained by such methods . . . . His disciples keep the peace by choosing to endure suffering themselves rather than inflict it on others. They maintain fellowship where others would break it off. They renounce hatred and wrong. In so doing they overcome evil with good, and establish the peace of God in the midst of a world of war and hate.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Hate, War, Evil

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• All that a pacifist can undertake -- but it is a very great deal -- is to refuse to kill, injure or otherwise cause suffering to another human creature, and untiringly to order his life by the rule of love though others may be captured by hate.

  Vera Brittain

  Hate, Order, Suffering

  "What Can We Do In Wartime?", September 9, 1939.

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• Can it be that a generation of school children is growing up heedless of the simple truth that the Pentagon's centrla role for many years has been to buy weapons that don't work, against threats that don't exist?

  Alexander Cockburn

  Children, Growing Up, School

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• Gandhi once declared that it was his wife who unwittingly taught him the effectiveness of nonviolence. Who better than women should know that battles can be won without resort to physical strength? Who better than we should know all the power that resides in noncooperation?

  Barbara Deming

  Effectiveness, Wife, Battle

  Barbara Deming (1984). “We Are All Part of One Another: A Barbara Deming Reader”

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• To resort to power one need not be violent, and to speak to conscience one need not be meek. The most effective action both resorts to power and engages conscience. Nonviolent actions does not have to get others to be nice. It can in effect force them to consult their consciences. Nor does it have to petition those in power to do something about a situation. It can face the authorities with a new fact and say: Accept this new situation which we have created.

  Barbara Deming

  Nice, Doe, Needs

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• I hate those men who would send into war youth to fight and die for them; the pride and cowardice of those old men, making their wars that boys must die.

  Mary Roberts Rinehart

  Hate, War, Fighting

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• What good is it to me that Mary gave birth to the son of God fourteen hundred years ago, and I do not also give birth to the Son of God in my time and in my culture? We are all meant to be mothers of God. God is always needing to be born.

  Meister Eckhart

  Mother, Son, Years

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• The enemy aggressor is always pursuing a course of larceny, murder, rapine, and barbarism. We are always moving forward with high mission, a destiny imposed by the deity to regenerate our victims while incidentally capturing their markets, to civilize savage and senile and paranoidal peoples while blundering accidentally into their oil wells or metal mines.

  John T. Flynn

  Moving, Destiny, Oil

  John T. Flynn (1944). “As We Go Marching”

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• The absence of risk is a sure sign of mediocrity.

  Charles de Foucauld

  Risk, Mediocrity, Absence

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• Productive work, love and thought are possible only if a person can be, when necessary, quiet and alone. To be able to listen to oneself is the necessary condition for relating oneself to others.

  Erich Fromm

  Productive Work, Able, Quiet

  Erich Fromm (2013). “Man for Himself: An Inquiry Into the Psychology of Ethics”, p.107, Routledge

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• It is the duty of youth to bring fresh new powers to bear on Social progress. Each generation of young people should be to the world like a vast reserve force to a tired army. They should life the world forward. That is what they are for.

  Charlotte Perkins Gilman

  Tired, Army, People

  Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1912). “The Forerunner”

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• It belongs to the very substance of nonviolence never to destroy or damage another person's feeling of self worth, even an opponent's. We all need, constantly, an advance of trust and affirmation.

  Bernhard Haring

  Self Worth, Feelings, Needs

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• God accepts the risk of appearing to be unjust. God looks unjust, but he is not. He asks more from those to whom he gives more. They are not greater or better, they have greater responsibility. They must give more service. Live to serve.

  Hélder Câmara

  Responsibility, Giving, Looks

  "Dom Helder Camara: essential writings".

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• You save your soul by saving someone else's body.

  Arthur Hertzberg

  Soul, Body, Saving

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• Be not lax in celebrating.
  Be not lazy in the festive service of God.
  Be ablaze with enthusiasm.
  Let us be an alive, burning offering before the altar of God.

  Hildegard of Bingen

  Offering, Lazy, Burning

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• Peace won by compromise is usually a short lived achievement.

  Winfield Scott

  Achievement, Compromise, Short Lived

  "The Iron Man of India". Book by S. Jaysbee, p. 57, 1951.

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• Peace without Justice is a low estate,— A coward cringing to an iron Fate! But Peace through Justice is the great ideal,— We'll pay the price of war to make it real.

  Henry Van Dyke

  Real, War, Fate

  Henry Van Dyke (1920). “The Poems of Henry Van Dyke”

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• If you are religious, then remember that this bomb is Man's challenge to God. It's worded quite simply: We have the power to destroy everything that You have created. If you're not religious, then look at it this way. This world of ours is 460,000,000 years old. It could end in an afternoon.

  Arundhati Roy

  Religious, Men, Ubuntu

  "The End of Imagination". Book by Arundhati Roy, 1998.

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• Peace is a certain resistance to the terrible satisfactions of war.

  Judith Butler

  War, Satisfaction, Resistance

  Interview with Jill Stauffer, www.believermag.com. May 2003.

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