The war we have to wage today has only one goal, and that is to make the world safe for diversity.
U ThantRead
Wars begin in the minds of men, and in those minds, love andcompassion would have built the defenses of peace.
Interpretation
The roots of conflict lie in human thoughts; fostering love and compassion can create a foundation for peace.
This quote by U Thant emphasizes the idea that the origin of wars and conflicts is not just political or territorial, but predominantly resides in the human mind. It suggests that promoting love and compassion in our thoughts and interactions can serve as crucial defenses against the emergence of war, ultimately advocating for peace through understanding and empathy.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech on peacebuilding and conflict resolution.
The war we have to wage today has only one goal, and that is to make the world safe for diversity.
Every human being, of whatever origin, of whatever station, deserves respect. We must each respect others even as we respect ourselves.
As a Buddhist, I was trained to be tolerant of everything except intolerance
As we watch the sun go down, evening after evening, through the smog across the poisoned waters of our native earth, we must ask ourselves seriously whether we really wish some future universal historian on another planet to say about us: "With all their genius and with all their skill, they ran out of foresight and air and food and water and ideas," or, They went on playing politics until their world collapsed around them.
National languages are all huge systems of vested interests which sullenly resist critical inquiry.
Status anxiety definitely exists at a political level. Many Iraqis were annoyed with the US essentially for reasons of status: for not showing them respect, for humiliating them.
We do not despise all those who have vices, but we do despise those that have no virtue.
Racism? But isn't it only a form of misanthropy?
Even if it’s a dumb story, telling it changes people just the slightest little bit, just as living the story changes me. An infinitesimal change. And that infinetisimal change ripples outward —ever smaller but everlasting. I will get forgotten, but the stories will last. And so we all matter —maybe less than a lot, but always more than none.
There are many things akin to highest deity that are still obscure. Some may be too subtle for our powers of comprehension, others imperceptible to us because such exalted majesty conceals itself in the holiest part of its sanctuary, forbidding access to any power save that of the spirit. How many heavenly bodies revolve unseen by human eye!
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