Quotations
Talking about Peace
Many different people have had things to say about peace and war. Read some inspiring quotations. If you really like one why not write it on a badge, print it on a T-shirt, or email it to your friends.
Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; argument an exchange of emotion.
Robert Quillen (US Humorist)
The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed
Steve Biko - Founder and martyr of the Black Consciousness movement in South Africa
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned.
Buddha
No man is an island entire of itself ... any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind
John Donne - English Poet and Writer (1572-1631)
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the USA (1953-61)
You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.
Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (1966-77 and 1980-84)
Nonviolence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being.
Mahatma Gandhi, Non-violence campaigner for Indian independence from Britain
Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
Martin Luther King
I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.
Abraham Lincoln, President of the USA (1861-65)
If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.
Nelson Mandela, Anti-Apartheid activist and President of South Africa (1994-99)
You can no more win a war than win an earthquake.
Jeanette Rankin, first woman nominated to the US House of Representatives and lifelong pacifist
The arms race can kill, though the weapons themselves may never be used...by their cost alone, armaments kill the poor by causing them to starve
Vatican statement to the UN, 1976
Peace starts with a smile
Mother Teresa, Catholic Nun and Nobel Peace Prize winner