Quotes on Violence

When liberty comes with hands dabbled in blood it is hard to shake hands with her.

Of all tasks of government the most basic is to protect its citizens against violence.

Revenge only engenders violence, not clarity and true peace. I think liberation must come from within.

Try to remain truthful. The power of truth never declines. Force and violence may be effective in the short term, but in the long run it's truth that prevails.

Everything that is of authentic value in life has arisen out of meditation. There is no other way. Meditation is the mother of art, music, poetry, dance, sculpture. All that is creative, all that is life-affirmative, is born out of meditation. All that is life-negative - hate, anger, jealousy, violence, war - is born out of the mind. Man has two possibilities: mind and meditation.

Just for a few tiny buds on your tongue you are killing live animals, with no sensitivity, with no awareness, with no love. It seems impossible; how can a man who has known love be capable of doing such things? A man who loves his wife, who loves his children goes on eating meat? Impossible.

You will have to go deep into man. From where comes this violence? From where comes this exploitation? From where come all these ego-trips? From where? They all come from unconsciousness. Man lives asleep, man lives mechanically. That mechanism has to be broken, man has to be re-done. That is the religious revolution that has not been tried.

Under all conditions, well-organized violence seems to him the shortest distance between two points.

The improvement of life was only accomplished to the extent to which it was based on a change of consciousness, that is, to the extent to which the law of violence was replaced in men's consciousness by the law of love.

It has always been my belief that I, too, will die by violence. I have done all that I can to be prepared.

In non-violence the cause has to be just and clear as well as the means.

Our most important task is to transform our consciousness so that violence is no longer an option for us in our personal lives, that understanding that a world of peace is possible only if we relate to each other as peaceful beings, one individual at a time.

The practice of violence, like all action, changes the world, but the most probable change is a more violent world.

You cannot be on one hand dedicated to peace and on the other dedicated to violence. Those two things are irreconcilable.

If every 8 year old in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence from the world within one generation

Violent fires soon burn out themselves, small showers last long, but sudden storms are short; he tires betimes that spurs too fast.

Violence, even well intentioned, always rebounds upon oneself.

Violence ever defeats its own ends. Where you cannot drive you can always persuade. A gentle word, a kind look, a god-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles. There is a secret pride in every human heart than revolts at tyranny. You may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you.

The violence done us by others is often less painful than that which we do to ourselves.

Violence is a disease, a disease that corrupts all who use it regardless of the cause.

Violence is essentially wordless. and it can begin only where thought and rational communication have broken down.