Quotes on Peace

Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight?

Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked about such a thing.

Conflict is inevitable but combat is optional.

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate... Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and Non-violence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could.

Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served. But all other pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before service which is rendered in a spirit of joy.

We may never be strong enough to be entirely non-violent in thought, word and deed. But we must keep non-violence as our goal and make steady progress towards it.

Violent men have not been known in history to die to a man. They die up to a point.

Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress.

I believe that a man is the strongest soldier for daring to die unarmed.

Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart.

Non-violence 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.

A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion.

You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.

There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed.

The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts.

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans - born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace.