Quotes on Peace, Tolerance and Non-violence

[M. Ashaq Malik]

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.

- Matthew, V:9

God is not merciful to him who is not so to mankind.

- Prophet Mohammed

"If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another."

- Winston Churchill

Give peace in our time, O Lord. - The Book of Common Prayer

Peace be with you. - The Bible: Genesis XLIII. 23

Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture inflicted on a prisoner of conscience. It does not comfort those who have lost their loved ones in floods caused by senseless deforestation in a neighboring country. Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free.

- Dalai Lama

When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.

- Dalai Lama

"The Holy Prophet Mohammed came into this world and taught us: 'That man is a Muslim who never hurts anyone by word or deed, but who works for the benefit and happiness of God's creatures. Belief in God is to love one's fellow men.'"

-Abdul Ghaffar Khan

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.

Mother Theresa (1910-1997)

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Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.

- UNESCO Constitution

Peace, peace is what I seek and public calm, Endless extinction of unhappy hates. - Matthew Arnold

"In the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love."

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

I do not want the peace which passeth understanding. I want the understanding which bringeth peace. - Helen Keller

So we must fix our vision not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but upon the positive affirmation of peace. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must shift the arms race into a 'peace race'.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Peace - the word evokes the simplest and most cherished dream of humanity. Peace is, and has always been, the ultimate human aspiration. And yet our history overwhelmingly shows that while we speak incessantly of peace, our actions tell a very different story.

- Javier Perez de Cuellar

In the hearts of people today there is a deep longing for peace. When the true spirit of peace is thoroughly dominant, it becomes an inner experience with unlimited possibilities. Only when this really happens-- when the spirit of peace awakens and takes possession of men's hearts, can humanity be saved from perishing. - Albert Schweitzer

Ring out old shapes of foul disease, Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace.

- Alfred Tennyson

Our goal must not be peace in our time but peace for all time.

- Harry S. Truman

I would rather have peace in the world than be President.

- Harry S. Truman

…. Many men cry Peace! Peace! but they refuse to do the things that make for peace."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"It is not enough to say 'We must not wage war.' It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it … We must see that peace represents a sweeter music, a cosmic melody that is far superior to the discord of war."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I believe that peace is not merely an absence of war but the nurture of human life, and that in time this nurture would do away with war as a natural process."

- Jane Addams

Peace is the beauty of life. It is sunshine. It is the smile of a child, the love of a mother, the joy of a father, the togetherness of a family. It is the advancement of man, the victory of a just cause, the triumph of truth. Peace is all of these and more and more. - Menachem Begin

What is peace? Is it war? No. Is it strife? No. Is it lovely, and gentle, and beautiful, and pleasant, and serene, and joyful? O yes!

- Charles Dickens (Bleak House)

Peace is not the product of terror or fear. Peace is not the silence of cemeteries. Peace is not the silent result of violent repression. Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all. Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity. It is right and it is duty.

- Oscar Romero

Peace is our gift to each other.

- Elie Wiesel

Better than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings peace.

-Buddha (560-483 B.C.)

Nonviolence, pacifism, that's the greatest thing that I think the human species has to aspire to, because otherwise it's not going to be around.

- Martin Scorsese

Mankind needs peace more than ever, for our entire planet, threatened by nuclear war, is in danger of total destruction. A destruction only man can provoke, only man can prevent.

- Elie Wiesel

“If you don’t like the way to the world is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time.

- Marian Wright Edelman

Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.

- Dolores Huerta

If we want to reap the harvest of peace and justice in the future, we will have to sow seeds of nonviolence, here and now, in the present.

- Mairead Corrigan Maguire

The value of our shared reward will and must be measured by the joyful peace which will triumph, because the common humanity that bonds both black and white into one human race, will have said to each one of us that we shall all live like the children of paradise. Thus shall we live, because we will have created a society which recognizes that all people are born equal, with each entitled in equal measure to life, liberty, prosperity, human rights and good governance. Such a society should never allow again that there should be prisoners of conscience nor that any person's human rights should be violated. - Nelson Mandela

"One little person, giving all of her time to peace, makes news. Many people, giving some of their time, can make history."

- Peace Pilgrim

"Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person."

- Mother Teresa.

Making peace, I have found, is much harder than making war.

- Gerry Adams

Peace is not a matter of prizes or trophies. It is not the product of a victory or command. It has no finishing line, no final deadline, no fixed definition of achievement.

- Oscar Arias Sanchez

Peace is a never-ending process, the work of many decisions by many people in many countries. It is an attitude, a way of life, a way of solving problems and resolving conflicts. It cannot be forced on the smallest nation or enforced by the largest. It cannot ignore our differences or overlook our common interests. It requires us to work and live together.

- Oscar Arias Sanchez

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction.

- Albert Einstein

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

- Albert Einstein

"The making of peace is a continuing process that must go on from day to day, from year to year, so long as our civilization shall last."

- J. William Fulbright

It is easier to lead men to combat and to stir up their passions than to temper them and urge them to the patient labors of peace.

- Andre Gide

The pursuit of peace and progress cannot end in a few years in either victory or defeat. The pursuit of peace and progress, with its trials and errors, its successes and setbacks, can never be relaxed and never abandoned. - Dag Hammarskjold

Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.

- Lyndon B Johnson

Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience.

- Thomas Merton

The struggle to maintain peace is immeasurably more difficult than any military operation.

- Anne O'Hare McCormick

We seem always ready to pay the price for war. Almost gladly we give our time and our treasures - our limbs and even our lives - for war. But we expect to get peace for nothing.

- Peace Pilgrim

The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.

- Hyman G. Rickover

It isn't enough to talk about peace; one must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it; one must work at it.

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Peace, like charity, begins at home."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Peace is not only better than war, but infinitely more arduous.

- George Bernard Shaw

Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

We have war because we are not sufficiently heroic for a life which does not need war.

- Bartolomeo Vanzeiti

If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another." - Winston Churchill

"I prefer the most unfair peace to the most righteous war."

- Cicero.

"The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend."

- Abraham Lincoln

In the secret of my heart I am in perpetual quarrel with God that He should allow such things [as the war] to go on. My non-violence seems almost impotent. But the answer comes at the end of the daily quarrel that neither God nor non-violence is impotent. Impotence is in men. I must try on without losing faith even though I may break in the attempt.

-Mahatma Gandhi

Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.

- Thomas A. Kempis

"In peace sons bury fathers, but war violates the order of nature, and fathers bury sons."

- Herodotus

Those who are at war with others are not at peace with themselves.

- William Hazlett

Peace has to be created, in order to be maintained. It is the product of Faith, Strength, Energy, Will, Sympathy, Justice, Imagination, and the triumph of principle. It will never be achieved by passivity and quietism.

- Dorothy Thompson

Peace is not achieved by controlling nations, but mastering our thoughts.

- John Harricharan:

Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.

- Omar N. Bradley

Peace is not the product of terror or fear. Peace is not the silence of cemeteries.
Peace is not the silent result of violent repression.
Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all.
Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity.
It is right and it is duty.

- Oscar Romero

I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent."

- Gandhi

Peace comes from being able to contribute the best that we have, and all that we are, toward creating a world that supports everyone. But it is also securing the space for others to contribute the best that they have and all that they are.

- Hafsat Abiola

There is no trust more sacred than the one the world holds with children. There is no duty more important than ensuring that their rights are respected, that their welfare is protected, that their lives are free from fear and want and that they grow up in peace.

-Kofi Annan

Democracy is an objective. Democratization is a process. Democratization serves the cause of peace because it offers the possibility of justice and of progressive change without force.

- Boutros Boutros-Ghali

If there is to be peace in the world, There must be peace in the nations.

If there is to be peace in the nations, There must be peace in the cities.

If there is to be peace in the cities, There must be peace between neighbors.

If there is to be peace between neighbors, There must be peace in the home.

If there is to be peace in the home, There must be peace in the heart.

- Lao Tzu (570-490 B.C.)