If peace is equated simply with the absence of war, it can become abject pacifism that turns the world over to the most ruthless.
Interpretation
Peace is more than just the lack of conflict; it requires active effort to maintain justice and order.
Henry A. Kissinger's quote emphasizes that true peace cannot merely be defined as the absence of war or conflict. If society sees peace only as such, it risks becoming complacent and vulnerable to exploitation by those who do not uphold moral standards. Therefore, peace should involve active engagement in justice and ethical governance to ensure a stable and harmonious society.
In practice
This quote can be used during a peace conference to remind attendees of the complexities of achieving true peace.
Every civilization that has ever existed has ultimately collapsed. History is a tale of efforts that failed, or aspirations that werenβt realized. So, as a historian, one has to live with a sense of the inevitability of tragedy.
Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.
It was a Greek tragedy. Nixon was fulfilling his own nature. Once it started it could not end otherwise.
The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.
What political leaders decide, intelligence services tend to seek to justify.
If I should ever be captured, I want no negotiation - and if I should request a negotiation from captivity they should consider that a sign of duress.
You've a right to believe that we're governed by Nature and the hidden Force within her. You can think that the gods, including my Melitele, are merely a personification of this power invented for simpletons so they can understand it better, accept its existence. According to you, that power is blind. But for me, Geralt, faith allows you to expect what my goddess personifies from nature: order, law, goodness. And hope.
The laws only can determine the punishment of crimes, and the authority of making penal laws can only reside with the legislator, who represents the whole society united by the social compact.
We are part of the whole which we call the universe, but it is an optical delusion of our mind that we think we are separate. This separateness is like a prison for us. Our job is to widen the circle of our compassion so we feel connected with all people and situations.
The memory of a particular image is but regret for a particular moment.
Mankind invented the atomic bomb, _x000D_ but no mouse would ever construct _x000D_ a mousetrap.
their powerlessness, innocence, and imagination fused to enable them to turn time inside out, travel on the wind, and enter the souls of animals.
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