QUOTES For
Nonviolence Page
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When
we hear the other person's feelings and needs, we recognize our common humanity.
-- Marshall Rosenberg
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What shall we choose?
Violence or non violence? …We have to choose knowing that when we are violent
to our enemies, we do violence to ourselves. When we brutalize others, we brutalize
ourselves. And eventually we run the risk of becoming our oppressors.
-- Arundhati Roy | |
"The
tradition of nonviolence, optimism, concern for the individual, and unconditional
compassion that developed in Tibet is the culmination of a slow inner revolution,
a cool one, hard to see, that began 2,500 years ago with the Buddha's insight
about the end of suffering. What I have learned from these people has forever
changed my life, and I believe their culture contains an inner science particularly
relevant to the difficult time in which we live." -- Robert
Thurman | |
"All
who affirm the use of violence admit it is only a means to achieve justice and
peace. But peace and justice are nonviolence...the final end of history. Those
who abandon nonviolence have no sense of history. Rathy they are bypassing history,
freezing history, betraying history." -- André Trocmé
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"Nonviolence
is the answer for the questions of our time. Love will conquer evil every time."
-- James Twyman
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Nonviolent
revolution does not seek the liberation simply of a class or race or nation. It
seeks the liberation of mankind… -- Council of the War Resisters' International
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We desire peace
- and that is why we have never resorted to physical force. We crave for justice
- and that is why we are so persistent in the struggle for our rights. We seek
freedom of convictions - and that is why we have never attempted to enslave man's
conscience, nor shall we ever attempt to do so. We are fighting for the right
of the working people to association and for the dignity of human labor. We respect
the dignity and the rights of every man and every nation. The path to a brighter
future of the world leads through honest reconciliation of the conflicting interests
and not through hatred and bloodshed. To follow that path means to enhance the
moral power of the all-embracing idea of human solidarity. -- Lech
Walesa |
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"The
power of nonviolence is not circumstance-specific. It is as applicable to the
problems that confront us now, as to problems that confronted generations in the
past. It is not a medicine or a solution so much as a healing process. It is the
active spiritual immune system of humanity." -- Marianne
Williamson The
Department of Peace would take a more human approach to healing our society, looking
not merely for ways we can destroy an enemy, but for more powerful ways to create
new friends. While the State Department engages in international diplomacy, there
is no domestic parallel. There is no department seeking to harness the power of
a nonviolent heart. -- Marianne
Williamson |
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"In
a world where change is inevitable and continuous, the need to achieve that change
without violence is essential for survival." -- Andrew
Young | |
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Our
planet is dying - both spiritually and physically. Fear, aggression and greed,
narrow-minded national interests and immature dominance and control over others
is a common theme in most countries. However, there are more and more people who
define themselves as global citizens, who know that life is intimately interconnected,
and that we can never be fully human whilst others continue to suffer, and who
know that love, justice and nonviolence is the very essence of life. And what
gives me hope is the very many different ways in which ordinary people are taking
responsibility. They are creating the changes needed to pass beyond war and injustice,
control and dominance and towards a free, just, loving, and diverse world.
-- Angie Zelter | |
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The
strike, the boycott, the refusal to serve, the ability to paralyze the functioning
of a complex social structure-these remain potent weapons against the most fearsome
state or corporate power. -- Howard
Zinn | |
Quotes
for Nonviolence
Portraits
for illustration purposes - no endorsement implied. Thanks
to Anukul Gurung for the fairy image of Emily Thanks to Fletcher Grayson/Gray
Media for creating The Emily Fund logo |