We have thought of peace as the passive and war as the active way of living. The opposite is true. War is not the most strenuous life. It is a kind of rest-cure compared to the task of reconciling our differences.
Interpretation
Peace requires active effort and engagement, while war is a destructive escape from conflict.
Mary Parker Follett highlights a profound understanding of the nature of peace and war. She suggests that society often views peace as too passive and war as an assertive and active state, but in reality, it takes much more strength and energy to engage in constructive dialogue and reconciliation than it does to engage in warfare. Thus, the real challenge lies in navigating differences and fostering peace, which is a labor-intensive process that demands resilience and commitment.
In practice
This quote could be used in a peace-building workshop to emphasize the need for active engagement in resolving conflicts.
There are three ways of dealing with difference: domination, compromise, and integration. By domination only one side gets what it wants; by compromise neither side gets what it wants; by integration we find a way by which both sides may get what they wish.
Unity, not uniformity, must be our aim.
Leadership is not defined by the exercise of power but by the capacity to increase the sense of power among those led. The most essential work of the leader is to create more leaders.
It is possible to conceive conflict as not necessarily a wasteful outbreak of incompatibilities, but a normal process by which socially valuable differences register themselves for the enrichment of all concerned.
Unity, not uniformity, must be our aim. We attain unity only through variety. Differences must be integrated, not annihilated, not absorbed.
No one, however weak, is denied a share in the victory of the cross. No one is beyond the help of the prayer of Christ.
I'm always looking for things that are so incredibly present that they become invisible.
Consumerism has led us to become used to an excess and daily waste of food, to which, at times, we are no longer able to give a just value, which goes well beyond mere economic parameters. We should all remember, however, that throwing food away is like stealing from the tables of the the poor, the hungry!
After the Manchu government had carried on wars with foreign nations and had been defeated, China was forced to sign many unequal treaties. Foreign nations are still using these treaties to bind China, and as a result, China fails at whatever she attempts.
Those who learned to know death, rather than to fear and fight it, become our teachers about life.
We do not pray to God to instruct Him as to what He should do; neither for a moment must we presume to dictate the method of the divine working.
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