ANSWERS
QUOTES
(Click
on *
for 8.5 X 11 PDF to print)
|
| The
simplest questions are the most profound. Where
were you born? Where is your home? Where are you
going? What are you doing? Think about these once
in a while and watch your answers change. ~Richard
Bach |
|
*
It would be naïve to think that peace and justice
can be achieved easily. No set of rules or study
of history will automatically resolve the problems
… However, with faith and perseverance, … complex
problems in the past have been resolved in our
search for justice and peace.
-- Jimmy
Carter
|
 |
*
"There
are no magic answers, no miraculous methods
to overcome the problems we face, just the familiar
ones: honest search for understanding, education,
organization, action ... and the kind of commitment
that will persist despite the temptations of
disillusionment, despite many failures and only
limited successes, inspired by the hope of a
brighter future."
-- Noam Chomsky
|
|
"There
are no magic answers, no miraculous methods to overcome
the problems we face, just the familiar ones: honest
search for understanding, education, organization, action
that raises the cost of state violence for its perpetrators
or that lays the basis for institutional change -- and
the kind of commitment that will persist despite the
temptations of disillusionment, despite many failures
and only limited successes, inspired by the hope of
a brighter future."
-- Noam Chomsky
|
*
"I think war is never the answer
to solving any problems. The best way to solve
problems is to not have enemies.”
--
Sheryl
Crow
|
 |
| All
my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere
I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I
accepted their answers too, though they were often
in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I
was naïve. I was looking for myself and asking everyone
except myself questions which I, and only I, could
answer. It took me a long time and much painful
boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization
everyone else appears to have been born with: that
I am nobody but myself. –Ralph Ellison |
|
Nonviolence,
therefore, can be described as an honest and diligent
pursuit of truth. It could also mean the search
for the meaning of life or the purpose of life,
questions that have tormented humankind for centuries.
The fact that we have not been able to find satisfactory
answers to these questions does not mean there
is no answer. It only means we have not searched
with any degree of honesty. The search has to
be both external and internal. We seek to ignore
this crucial search because the sacrifices it
demands are revolutionary. It means moving away
from greed, selfishness, possessiveness, and dominance
to love, compassion, understanding, and respect.
-- Arun
Gandhi
|
 |
|
|
*
Truth resides in every human heart, and one
has to search for it there, and to be guided
by truth as one sees it. But no one has a right
to coerce others to act according to his own
view of truth.
-- Mohandas
Gandhi
|
|
|
A
balance of interests rather than a balance of
power, a search for compromise and concord rather
than a search for advantages at other people's
expense, and respect for equality rather than
claims to leadership - such are the elements which
can provide the groundwork for world progress…
~ Mikhail
Gorbachev
|
|
Forgiveness
is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle
by which what is broken is made whole again, what
is soiled is made clean again.
-- Dag
Hammarskjöld
|
 |
|
I would like to appeal to all those in whose hands
the future of mankind lies, to use their power
not to destroy or kill, nor to create suffering
in a grasping search for selfish objectives, but
to help alleviate the plight of the needy; to
aim at justice and freedom for the individual.
-- Poul
Hartling
|
 |
|
|
"Somebody
said to me the other day, 'You know, it's really
senseless, what you're doing. There's always been
suffering, there will always be suffering, and
you're just prolonging the suffering of these
children [by rescuing them].' My answer is, 'Okay,
then, let's start with your grandchild. Don't
buy antibiotics if it gets pneumonia. Don't take
it to the hospital of it has an accident. It's
against life-against humanity-to think that way."
--
Audrey
Hepburn
|
 |
*
Difference is of the essence
of humanity. Difference is an accident of birth
and it should therefore never be the source of
hatred or conflict. The answer to difference is
to respect it. Therein lies a most fundamental
principle of peace: respect for diversity.
--
John Hume
|
*
And
when at some future date the high court of history
sits in judgment on each of us ... will be measured
by the answers to four questions: First, were
we truly men of courage... Second, were we truly
men of judgment... Third, were we truly men of
integrity... Finally, were we truly men of dedication?
-- John F.
Kennedy, 1961
|
 |
And
when at some future date the high court of history sits
in judgment on each of us, recording whether in our
brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities
to the state, our success or failure, in whatever office
we hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions:
First, were we truly men of courage... Second, were
we truly men of judgment... Third, were we truly men
of integrity... Finally, were we truly men of dedication?
-- John F. Kennedy,
1961
*
Ultimately, America's answer to the intolerant
man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage
of religious freedom has inspired.
-- Robert
F. Kennedy |
 |
 |
I
would always encourage people of any age not to
be so quick to follow other people's truths but
to search and follow your own moral code and live
by your own integrity, and mostly just be brave.
-- Jewel
Kilcher
|
Honest
hope has an edge. It's messy. It requires that we
let go of all pat answers, all preconceived formulas,
all confidence that our sailing will be smooth.
It's not a resting point. Honest hope is movement.
-- Frances Moore Lappé |
 |
"The
most revolutionary thing anybody can do is to
raise good, honest and generous children who
will question the answers of people who say
the answer is violence. That's what the schools
should be doing."
-- Colman
McCarthy
|
|
|
*
"The young, free to act on their initiative,
can lead their elders in the direction of the
unknown... The children, the young, must ask the
questions that we would never think to ask, but
enough trust must be re-established so that the
elders will be permitted to work with them on
the answers."
-- Margaret
Mead
|
|
|
|
If
we destroy their environments and communities, we
will lose the answers they have to solving our problems,
and to the protection of our common futures.
--
Raúl
Montenegro
|
|
*
The world’s major religions in the end all want
the same thing, even though they were born in
different places and circumstances on this planet.
What the world needs today is a convergence of
the different religions in the search for and
definition of the cosmic or divine laws which
ought to regulate our behavior on this planet.
--
Robert
Muller
|
 |
 |
On
every front there are clear answers out there
that can make this country stronger, but we're
going to break through the fear and the frustration
people are feeling. Our job is to make sure that
even as we make progress, that we are also giving
people a sense of hope and vision for the future.
-- Barack
Obama
|
|
One
of the advantages of being born in an affluent
society is that if one has any intelligence at
all, one will realize that having more and more
won't solve the problem, and happiness does not
lie in possessions, or even relationships: The
answer lies within ourselves. If we can't find
peace and happiness there, it's not going to come
from the outside.
-- Tenzin
Palmo
|
 |
|
The
first part of the Answer to the Question of the
'Meaning of Life' is about the way to truly Live.
And that is to love and be loved by the people
in your life with all your heart, and to seek
to live in the Now – to strive to be present with
them, and remember this mission and purpose through
the struggles and the joy, and to share together
the amazing journey of life. The second part is
to see Life as more than your own life and your
own time. To see that throughout time, humanity
has shared a vision of ‘peace on earth’. And though
it is an impossible dream, only a life lived in
service to humanity – in honor of this shared
goal – can help to validate the struggles of the
93 billion people who have lived and died, the
7 billion dreams of those alive today, and the
hope of humanity to come. The third is to find
a balance between the two – between living your
individual life to the fullest, while striving
to help humanity evolve to a higher consciousness
of compassion, meaning and purpose.
-- Robert
Alan Silverstein
|
 |
|
Exactly
what brings happiness is a mystery for most people.
Some try to find the answer by pursuing wealth,
love, adventure and climbing the corporate ladder.
Many who reach the goals that they've convinced
themselves they need to reach to be happy, however,
find themselves still searching for happiness.
The conclusion that many heroes for a better world
have discovered, is that helping others to be
happy is the surest way to find happiness. --
Robert
Alan Silverstein
Love
is the way we show peace, love sets us free.
Love is the bond that joins us to our community.
Love is the answer that we've been searching for.
It lives inside all of us, just open up the door,
And Love to find Peace...
-- Robert
Alan Silverstein
|
Many
folks have asked me, ‘How do you do it and why
have you sacrificed so much to do this work?
The answer comes easy. I look at my daughter
and find hope in that she is living in a world
of struggle, of social and political movement.
She and the other five-year-olds will grow up
in a more just, more equitable world. She motivates
me.
-- Lateefah
Simon
|
|
 |
"I've
seen miracles in post-war situations, in famines,
in places of horrendous brutal subjugation and
oppression, when women step forward and play their
rightful role in co-equal partnership with men.
It's not the answer all by itself, but it is a
powerful and incredibly effective step to give
women their rightful role and voice and the resources
to back it up."
-- Lynne
Twist
|
|
*
"Nonviolence is the answer for the questions
of our time. Love will conquer evil every time."
-- James
Twyman
|
 |
|
*
In many parts of the world the people are searching
for a solution which would link the two basic
values: peace and justice. The two are like bread
and salt for mankind.
-- Lech
Walesa
|
|
It
is wise to direct your anger towards problems - not
people; to focus your energies on answers - not excuses.
- William Arthur Ward
|
|
|
