Quotes on Make Peace Not War

Let us examine our attitude toward peace itself. Too many of us think it is impossible. Too many think it unreal. But that is a dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable, that mankind is doomed, that we are gripped by forces we cannot control. We need not accept that view. Our problems are manmade; therefore they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as be wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.

There is nothing that war has ever achieved that we could not better achieve without it.

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.

We cannot change the past, but we can change our attitude toward it. Uproot guilt and plant forgiveness. Tear out arrogance and seed humility. Exchange love for hate - thereby, making the present comfortable and the future promising.

Bullets cannot be recalled. They cannot be uninvented. But they can be taken out of the gun.

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.

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force...Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.

Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.

Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.

Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

We cannot have peace if we are only concerned with peace. War is not an accident. It is the logical outcome of a certain way of life. If we want to attack war, we have to attack that way of life.

A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.

A time will come when a politician who has willfully made war and promoted international dissension will be as sure of the dock and much surer of the noose than a private homicide. It is not reasonable that those who gamble with men's lives should not stake their own.

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

At the age of four with paper hats and wooden swords we're all Generals. Only some of us never grow out of it.

In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful.

Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.