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34 Powerful Quotes About World Peace

The fight for world peace is not just the work of diplomats and politicians — it’s a collective effort that requires the hearts and minds of each and every one of us. 

Across countless generations and conflicts, advocates and activists have worked to create a more peaceful world. Despite a number of devastating setbacks, peacemaking efforts have been successful in creating a more peaceful world , overall. Still, there is more work to be done... and we all have a responsibility to be a part of that work.

Peacemaking is an ongoing process that requires education, activism, courage, and continual dialogue.

Over time, inspiring peacemakers have imparted their wisdom through speeches, literature, and actions — urging humanity to choose the path of understanding and compassion over conflict.

We’ve curated a selection of quotes that center on the idea of world peace — to inspire, challenge, and encourage you to play your part in this vital mission. 

Whether you’re already involved in peace-building efforts or in need of some perspective in light of heartbreaking current world events — may these quotes galvanize your own journey toward promoting world peace.

‍ You might also like: Quotes About Humanity | Quotes About Activism | Quotes About Social Justice | Quotes About Peace

The Best Quotes About Creating Peace in the World

“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 is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.” — John F. Kennedy

“Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

“Peace begins with a smile.” — Mother Teresa

“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” — Edith Wharton

“Peace is the opposite of dreaming. It’s built slowly and surely through brutal compromises and tiny victories that you don’t even see. It’s a messy business, bringing peace into the world.” — Bono

“Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.” — Maria Montessori

“Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” — Desmond Tutu

“I still believe that peace and plenty and happiness can be worked out some way. I am a fool.” — Kurt Vonnegut

“If you want to end the war, then instead of sending guns, send books. Instead of sending tanks, send pens. Instead of sending soldiers, send teachers.” — Malala Yousafzai

“Is world peace ever going to be a reality? Sadly, likely not in our lifetimes. But that does not mean we should give in to despair. Mahatma Gandhi once said, ‘When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it — always.’” — Jane Goodall

“Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us and the world will be as one.” — John Lennon, Imagine

“Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.” — Amelia Earhart

“World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not just mere absence of violence. Peace is, I think, the manifestation of human compassion.” — The Dalai Lama 

“Not one of us can rest, be happy, be at home, be at peace with ourselves, until we end hatred and division.” — John Lewis

“Peace is the only battle worth waging.” — Albert Camus

“The more we sweat in peace, the less we bleed in war.” — Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

“That’s all nonviolence is — organized love.” — Joan Baez

“Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.” — Albert Einstein

“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” — Mahatma Gandhi

“Peace is our gift to each other.” — Elie Wiesel

“Until we have the courage to recognize cruelty for what it is — whether its victim is human or animal — we cannot expect things to be much better in this world… We cannot have peace among men whose hearts delight in killing any living creature.” — Rachel Carson

“We can’t just hope for a brighter day, we have to work for a brighter day. Love too often gets buried in a world of hurt and fear. And we have to work to dig it out so we can share it with our family, our friends, and our neighbors.” — Dolly Parton

“Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can quietly become a power no government can suppress, a power than can transform the world.” — Howard Zinn

“If you don’t know the guy on the other side of the world, love him anyway because he’s just like you. He has the same dreams, the same hopes and fears. It’s one world, pal. We’re all neighbors.” — Frank Sinatra

“I think it’s naive to pray for world peace if we’re not going to change the form in which we live.” — Godfrey Reggio

“I believe we are here on the planet Earth to live, grow up and do what we can to make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom.” — Rosa Parks

“Peace cannot exist without justice, justice cannot exist without fairness, fairness cannot exist without development, development cannot exist without democracy, democracy cannot exist without respect for the identity and worth of cultures and peoples.” — Rigoberta Menchu, Nobel Peace Prize laureate

“World peace, like community peace, does not require that each man love his neighbor — it requires only that they live together with mutual tolerance, submitting their disputes to a just and peaceful settlement.” — John F. Kennedy

“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

“We who in engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

“Don’t wait for a better world. Start now to create a world of harmony and peace. It is up to you, and it always has been. You may even find the solution at the end of your fork.” — Sharon Gannon

“Peace is not something you wish for, it is something you make, something you are, something you do and something you give away.” — Robert Fulghum

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73 Inspirational Quotes for the Month of August

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30 Quotes About Peace That Will Inspire Tranquility in Your Life

Calm your mind, body and spirit with these serene thoughts.

Peace remains a goal for introspective individuals around the world. The lifelong search for inner peace challenges us to learn more about ourselves while allowing us to evolve with the seasons — and the quotes on our list capture all forms of peace. They'll inspire you to embark on your own journey! After all, creators of past and present would agree that peace requires a journey beginning with you .

Inner Peace Quotes:

• “Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.” — Saint Francis de Sales
• “The life of inner peace, being harmonious and without stress, is the easiest type of existence.” — Norman Vincent Peale
• “Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.” — Dalai Lama
• “Nobody can bring you peace but yourself.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “If you are depressed you are living in the past if you are anxious you are living in the future, if you are at peace, you are living in the present.” — Lao Tzu
• “When things change inside you, things change around you.” — Unknown
• “Peace of mind for five minutes, that's what I crave.” — Alanis Morissette

Calming Peace Quotes:

• “Peace is liberty in tranquility.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero
• “Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy and serenity.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
• “I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart. I am. I am. I am.” — Sylvia Plath
• “You should feel beautiful and you should feel safe. What you surround yourself with should bring you peace of mind and peace of spirit.” — Stacy London
• “Sometimes you can find peace of mind by transferring yourself to different situations. They're just reminders to stay ... calm.” — Yves Behar
• “Don't search for anything except peace. Try to calm the mind. Everything else will come on its own." — Baba Hari Das
• “Let go of the thoughts that don’t make you strong." — Karen Salmansohn
• “Peace begins with a smile.” — Mother Teresa

Inspirational Peace Quotes:

• “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
• “You will find peace not by trying to escape your problems, but by confronting them courageously. You will find peace not in denial, but in victory.” — J. Donald Walters
• “Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.” — John F. Kennedy
• “Peace brings with it so many positive emotions that it is worth aiming for in all circumstances.” — Estella Eliot
• “ Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.” — Lyndon B. Johnson
• “ If you don't know the guy on the other side of the world, love him anyway because he's just like you. He has the same dreams, the same hopes and fears. It's one world, pal. We're all neighbors.” — Frank Sinatra
• “ Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.” — Albert Einstein

World Peace Quotes:

• “When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.” — Jimi Hendrix
• “Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us and the world will be as one.” — John Lennon
• “ An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” — Mahatma Gandhi
• “Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.” — Ronald Reagan
• “Not one of us can rest, be happy, be at home, be at peace with ourselves, until we end hatred and division.” — John Lewis
• “You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.” ―Indira Gandhi
• “When you make peace with yourself, you make peace with the world.” —Maha Ghosananda
• “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” — Desmond Tutu

Selena is the entertainment and news editor for Good Housekeeping , where she covers the latest on TV, movies and celebrities. In addition to writing and editing entertainment news, she also spotlights the Hispanic and Latinx community through her work. She is a graduate of CUNY Hunter College with a B.A. in journalism and creative writing.

Yaa Bofah is an editorial fellow at Good Housekeeping. She is a freelance illustrator and created original cover art for The Fashion Bomb Daily’s first e-book series. She enjoys supporting philanthropic endeavors and being an advocate for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. 

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100 Peace Quotes To Inspire A Better World

By Maxime Lagacé

Maxime is the founder of WisdomQuotes. He has been collecting quotes since 2004. His goal? To help you develop a calm and peaceful mind. Learn more about him on his about page .

Here are 100 of the most inspiring peace quotes I could find.

To inspire unity and peace in you and the world.

After, we all need inspiration and reminders about generosity, service, and kindness .

It’s what makes the world beautiful.

You’ll discover quotes by Einstein, Buddha, Gandhi, and more.

Peace begins with a smile. Mother Teresa

The world is now too small for anything but brotherhood. Arthur Powell Davies

Love is the purest form of a soul at peace. Matthew Donnelly

Little people are intolerant, selfish and impatient. Wise people are calm, loving and understanding. Maxime Lagacé

If you want peace, you don’t talk to your friends . You talk to your enemies. Desmond Tutu

Do your little bit of good where you are; its those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world. Desmond Tutu (Nobel Peace Prize 1984)

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

When you make peace with yourself, you make peace with the world. Maha Ghosananda

Why can’t people just sit and read books and be nice to each other? David Baldacci

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace. Jimi Hendrix

You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom. Malcolm X

You were placed on this earth to create not to compete. Robert Anthony

Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. Amelia Earhart

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

We will know peace the day we truly know ourselves. Maxime Lagacé

The Best Peace Quotes

World peace begins with inner peace. 14th Dalai Lama

Peace in ourselves, peace in the world. Thich Nhat Hanh

Don’t gain the world and lose your soul, wisdom is better than silver or gold. Bob Marley

You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist. Indira Gandhi

First keep the peace within yourself, then you can also bring peace to others. Thomas a Kempis

An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind. Mahatma Gandhi

In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you. Deepak Chopra

If there must be trouble let it be in my day, that my child may have peace. Thomas Paine

If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace. John Lennon

To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness. Robert Muller

True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice. Martin Luther King Jr

I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war. Albert Einstein

We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves. 14th Dalai Lama

I have come into this world to see this: the sword drop from men’s hands even at the height of their arc of rage because we have finally realized there is just one flesh we can wound. Hafiz of Persia

Let us bring equality, justice, and peace for all. Not just the politicians and the world leaders, we all need to contribute. Me. You. It is our duty. Malala Yousafzai (Nobel Prize Winner 2014)

You cannot find peace by avoiding life. Virginia Woolf

Make peace with your broken pieces. Unknown

Worrying does not take away tomorrow’s troubles, it takes away today’s peace. Unknown

There is no way to peace, peace is the way. A.J. Muste

Barbecue may not be the road to world peace, but it’s a start. Anthony Bourdain

The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions. Thich Nhat Hanh

The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it. Albert Einstein

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

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

What Is Peace?

Peace is not the absence of war but the presence of justice. Harrison Ford

Peace is not the absence of war; it is a virtue; a state of mind; a disposition for benevolence; confidence; and justice. Baruch Spinoza

Peace is costly but it is worth the expense. African proverb

Peace is the only battle worth waging. Albert Camus

• 100 Attitude Quotes To Improve Your State Of Mind
• 100 Respect Quotes To Create More Unity In The World
• 130 Maturity Quotes To Make You Steady And Calm

Part 2. Peace Quotes That Are…

The most famous peace quotes.

Go to table of contents

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. Mother Teresa (Nobel Peace Prize 1979)

Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding. Ralph Waldo Emerson

I believe our sorrow can make us a better country. I believe our righteous anger can be transformed into more justice and more peace. Barack Obama (Nobel Peace Prize 2009)

Resolutely train yourself to attain peace. Buddha

A running world is a peaceful world. Eliud Kipchoge (First man to run a marathon under two hours)

If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner. Nelson Mandela (Nobel Peace Prize 1993)

Peace is the virtue of civilization. War is its crime. Victor Hugo

No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite. Nelson Mandela

I was a drum major for peace. Martin Luther King Jr (Nobel Peace Prize 1964)

There is something strangely inconsistent about a nation and a press that would praise you when you say, ‘Be nonviolent toward Jim Clark,’ but will curse and damn you when you say, ‘Be nonviolent toward little brown Vietnamese children.’ There is something wrong with that press. Martin Luther King Jr

Some people call me the girl who was shot by the Taliban. And some, the girl who fought for her rights. Malala Yousafzai (Nobel Peace Prize 2014)

There is no greater violence than to deny the dreams of our children. Kailash Satyarthi (Nobel Peace Prize 2014)

The biggest challenge or biggest crisis knocking on the doors of humankind is fear and intolerance. Kailash Satyarhi (Nobel Peace Prize 2014)

Only art and music have the power to bring peace. Yoko Ono

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. Albert Einstein

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. John F. Kennedy

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government. Thomas Jefferson

We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children. Jimmy Carter

Working for peace in the future is to work for peace in the present moment. Thich Nhat Hanh

Part 1. I believe that to meet the challenges of our times, human beings will have to develop a greater sense of universal responsibility. 14th Dalai Lama  (Real name is Tenzin Gyatso, Nobel Peace Prize 1989)

Part 2. Each of us must learn to work not just for oneself, one’s own family or nation, but for the benefit of all humankind. Universal responsibility is the key to human survival. It is the best foundation for world peace. 14th Dalai Lama

Non-cooperation is a measure of discipline and sacrifice, and it demands respect for the opposite views. Mahatma Gandhi (Nominated 5 times for Nobel Peace Prize)

Nobody can hurt me without my permission. Mahatma Gandhi

Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will live as one. John Lennon

All we are saying is give peace a chance. John Lennon

Related : 20 Inspirational Lessons From Nobel Prize Winners (lifehack.org)

Short Peace Quotes

Peace is every step. Thich Nhat Hanh

Peace begins when expectation ends. Sri Chinmoy

Dream always of a peaceful, warless, disarmed world. Robert Muller

We make war that we may live in peace. Aristotle

#PeaceDay should be everyday. Michael Douglas (UN Messenger of Peace)

Every drop in the ocean counts. Yoko Ono

Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace. 14th Dalai Lama

Peace without justice is an impossibility. Desmond Tutu (Nobel Peace Prize 1984)

Love is my weapon. Music is my religion. Peace is in my soul. Unknown

I am centered. I am balanced. I am at peace. Unknown

Peace is never a perfect achievement. Kofi Annan (Nobel Peace Prize 2001)

I, too, am America. Langston Hughes

Inspirational Peace Quotes (For Changing The World)

Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere. Elie Wiesel

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

You who are journalists, writers, citizens, you have the right and duty to say to those you have elected that they must practice mindfulness, calm and deep listening, and loving speech. This is universal thing, taught by all religions. Thich Nhat Hanh ( Related : Peace Is Every Step , Amazon book)

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

Part 1. Peace is the highest and most strenuous act of the soul, but an entirely harmonious act, in which all our powers and affections are blending in a beautiful proportion, and sustain and perfect one another. William Ellery Channing

Part 2. It is more than the silence after storms. It is as the concord of all melodious sounds… an alliance of love with all beings, a sympathy with all that is pure and happy, a surrender of every separate will and interest, a participation of the spirit and life of the universe… William Ellery Channing

Part 3. This is peace, and the true happiness of humanity. William Ellery Channing

Peace is our gift to each other. Elie Wiesel (Nobel Peace Prize 1986)

If not now, then when? If not you, then who? If we are able to answer these fundamental questions, then perhaps we can wipe away the blot of human slavery. Kailash Satyarthi (Nobel Peace Prize 2014)

We who work for peace must not falter. We must continue to pray for peace and to act for peace in whatever way we can, we must continue to speak for peace and to live the way of peace; to inspire others, we must continue to think of peace and to know that peace is possible. Peace Pilgrim

Choose. The single clenched fist lifted and ready, or the open hand held out and waiting. Choose: For we meet by one or the other. Carl Sandburg

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. Leo Tolstoy

Wise Peace Sayings

When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you. African proverb

While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart. Francis of Assisi

One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one. Agatha Christie

If I have been of service , if I have glimpsed more of the nature and essence of ultimate good, if I am inspired to reach wider horizons of thought and action, if I am at peace with myself, it has been a successful day. Alex Noble

The less we know ourselves, the more power we crave, the more violent we become. Maxime Lagacé

It’s time for us to turn to each other, not on each other. Jesse Jackson

Everyone’s a pacifist between wars. It’s like being a vegetarian between meals. Colman McCarthy

Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee. Augustine of Hippo

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

Dad, how do soldiers killing each other solve the world’s problems? Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes)

Be selective in your battles. Sometimes peace is better than being right. Unknown

Either war is obsolete or men are. R. Buckminster Fuller

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

A few thoughts on peace…

What does peace mean to you?

For me, it’s simple: it means you respect and accept not just others, but yourself.

It also means you know yourself and your human weaknesses so you can tame your ego and desire for power.

After all, isn’t it the search for power and status that brings us to do things that we wouldn’t normally do?

You and I are peaceful by nature.

But society told us that we were inadequate so we fight to make our place and bring down others.

This way we feel better about ourselves, right?

if you don’t truly know yourself and your value, you’ll do things that you’ll regret.

You’ll be too proud and ultimately, violent.

Don’t do that.

You were born beautiful.

Stay that way.

Further Readings

• Topic: Relationships
• 139 Relationship Quotes To Level Up Your Bonding With Others
• 83 Listening Quotes To Help You Be A Better Listener
• How to Bring Peace to the World Through You (wikihow.com)
• 71 Generosity Quotes To Make Your World Better
• 81 Compassion Quotes To Keep Your Heart Open
• 90 Humility Quotes That Will Make You Feel Powerful
• 65 Karma Quotes To Improve Your Mindset (And Your Life)

Hope you enjoyed these inspiring peace quotes. If you did, please share them with a friend today!

Are you peaceful? What’s your favorite peace quote? And remember: words can transform your life, if you find the right ones.

Table Of Contents

Part 1 Top 15 Images Best Quotes What Is Peace?

Part 2 Peace Quotes That ARE Famous Short Inspirational Wise

Part 3 Conclusion

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Peace & Inspirational Quotes

Quotations are sorted in alphabetical order by last name

Dr. Maya Angelou

A Brave and Startling Truth b y Dr. Maya Angelou

We, this people, on a small and lonely planet Traveling through casual space Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns To a destination where all signs tell us It is possible and imperative that we learn A brave and startling truth

And when we come to it To the day of peacemaking When we release our fingers From fists of hostility And allow the pure air to cool our palms

When we come to it When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hate And faces sooted with scorn and scrubbed clean When battlefields and coliseum No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughters Up with the bruised and bloody grass To lie in identical plots in foreign soil

When the rapacious storming of the churches The screaming racket in the temples have ceased When the pennants are waving gaily When the banners of the world tremble Stoutly in the good, clean breeze

When we come to it When we let the rifles fall from our shoulders And children dress their dolls in flags of truce When land mines of death have been removed And the aged can walk into evenings of peace When religious ritual is not perfumed By the incense of burning flesh And childhood dreams are not kicked awake By nightmares of abuse

When we come to it Then we will confess that not the Pyramids With their stones set in mysterious perfection Nor the Gardens of Babylon Hanging as eternal beauty In our collective memory Not the Grand Canyon Kindled into delicious color By Western sunsets

Nor the Danube, flowing its blue soul into Europe Not the sacred peak of Mount Fuji Stretching to the Rising Sun Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who, without favor, Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shores These are not the only wonders of the world

When we come to it We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace We, this people on this mote of matter In whose mouths abide cankerous words Which challenge our very existence Yet out of those same mouths Come songs of such exquisite sweetness That the heart falters in its labor And the body is quieted into awe

We, this people, on this small and drifting planet Whose hands can strike with such abandon That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness That the haughty neck is happy to bow And the proud back is glad to bend Out of such chaos, of such contradiction We learn that we are neither devils nor divines

When we come to it We, this people, on this wayward, floating body Created on this earth, of this earth Have the power to fashion for this earth A climate where every man and every woman Can live freely without sanctimonious piety Without crippling fear

When we come to it We must confess that we are the possible We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world That is when, and only when We come to it.

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All people essentially desire peace. It is not flowery rhetoric or pretense that draws forth that inner spirit from people’s lives, but only open, honest dialogue coming from genuine and sincere humanity.

Dialogue and education for peace can help free our hearts from the impulse toward intolerance and the rejection of others. People need to be made conscious of a very simple reality: we have no choice but to share this planet, this small blue sphere floating in the vast reaches of space, with all of our fellow “passengers.”

Each of us, no matter how weak or ineffectual we may feel ourselves to be, must build deep within our hearts a stronghold for peace, one that will be capable of withstanding and in the end silencing the incessant calls to war. This is the only way humanity’s tragic predilection for violence can be reformed and its energies channeled in new directions.

Every war, when viewed from the undistorted perspective of life’s sanctity, is a “civil war” waged by humanity against itself.

Everyone can be engaged in education for peace. It can be as simple as taking the time to talk with the children and young people in our lives―in our homes and communities―about the dignity of life and the equality of people. We must never underestimate the impact of such seemingly small efforts.

For both victor and vanquished, war leaves only a sense of endless futility.

From a healed, peaceful heart, humility is born; from humility, a willingness to listen to others is born; from a willingness to listen to others, mutual understanding is born; and from mutual understanding, a peaceful society will be born. Nonviolence is the highest form of humility; it is supreme courage.

Human dignity does not shine in isolation. It comes to full brilliance through our efforts to cast a bridge connecting the opposing banks of self and other. . . . Actions taken to illuminate the dignity of others inevitably generate the light that reveals our own highest aspects.

It is the younger generations who hold the key to creating peace. No one is born hating others. Prejudice and discriminatory attitudes are ingrained during the process of growing from childhood into adulthood.

If we picture a global society of peace and creative coexistence as an edifice, the ideals of human rights and human security are key pillars that hold it up, while the foundation on which these rest is respect for the dignity of life. If this foundation remains no more than an abstract conceptualization, the entire structure will be unstable and could collapse in the event of a severe challenge or crisis.

Just as fire is extinguished by water, hatred can only be defeated by love and compassion.

No matter what the state of society or the times, each of us can contribute to peace in our immediate environment. We can do this by encouraging even one young person and enabling them to tap into their potential.

Nothing is more precious than peace. Nothing brings more happiness. Peace is the most basic starting point for the advancement of humankind.

One person inspiring another, transcending all differences—this is the basis of changing society at the most fundamental level.

Peace is a competition between despair and hope, between disempowerment and committed persistence. To the degree that powerlessness takes root in people's consciousness, there is a greater tendency to resort to force. Powerlessness breeds violence.

Peace is not found somewhere far away. Peace is found where there is caring. Peace is found when you bring joy to your mother instead of suffering. Peace is found when you reach out and make an effort to understand and embrace someone who is different from you.

Peace is not simply a matter of living a quiet, detached or carefree life. Peace exists in action―courageously, nonviolently fighting against the injustice that makes people suffer. It is only in such action that we find peace. When the majority of people lose the will to resist injustice and become indifferent and apathetic, it may be said that society starts to tilt in the direction of war.

Peace is not simply the absence of war; it is a state in which people come together in mutual trust and live with joy, energy and hope. This is the polar opposite of war―where people live plagued by hatred and the fear of death.

Sincerity is the key to transforming distrust into trust, hostility into understanding, and hatred into compassion. Friendship and trust are indispensible to true peace, and they cannot be cultivated strategically.

The compassion that never abandons others to suffer alone; the wisdom to perceive the equality and possibilities of life; the courage to make our differences the impetus for the elevation of our humanity: I believe that the challenge of constructing a global society of peace and creative coexistence begins with the recognition that all people inherently possess these qualities. I also believe that the social mission of religion in the twenty-first century must be to encourage the flowering of these capacities. It must bring people together in an ethos of reverence for life's dignity and worth.

The human spirit is endowed with the ability to transform even the most difficult circumstances, creating value and ever richer meaning. When each person brings this limitless spiritual capacity to full flower, and when ordinary citizens unite in a commitment to positive change, a culture of peace―a century of life―will come into being.

The inherent dignity of life does not manifest in isolation. Rather, it is through our active engagement with others that their unique and irreplaceable nature becomes evident. At the same time, the determination to protect that dignity against all incursions adorns and brings forth the luster of our own lives.

The struggle for peace, like the struggle for human rights and humanity, is not one in which, having reached the peak of the mountain, the final goal comes into view. Rather, it should be thought of as the work of generating an uninterrupted and unstoppable flow of commitment that connects and is passed on from one generation to the next.

The vision that we must place at the heart of contemporary society is . . . [of] a world more noted for the warm light of dignity than the cold gleam of wealth, a world of empathy marked by the resolute refusal to abandon those who suffer most deeply.

To help a culture of peace take root the world over, it is necessary to patiently counteract any incidence of hatred and confrontation that may arise. We are, by virtue of being human, endowed with the tools that we need for this pursuit: the tuning fork of self-reflection with which to imagine the pain of others as if it were our own; the bridge of dialogue over which to reach out to anyone, anywhere; and the shovel and hoe of friendship with which to cultivate even the most barren and desolate of wastelands.

To set out from immediate and concrete realities, creating with every step new neighbors in an expanding network of human solidarity―this is the true path to peace. Without the steady accumulation of such efforts, the ideal of a perpetual peace will remain forever out of reach.

Voices of integrity, voices filled with conviction are a powerful force for good.

We must build a society that has more than its short-term profit as its goal. To do that, the first step is to respect ourselves and to live with dignity, self-confidence and pride. Such people are then able to treat others with respect.

We need to awaken to a common consciousness of being all inhabitants of Earth. This consciousness is not to be found in some distant place. It will not be found on a computer screen. It lies in our hearts, in our ability to share the pain of our fellow human beings. It is the spirit that says: “As long as you are suffering, whoever you are and whatever your suffering may be, I suffer also.”

When human beings live together, conflict is inevitable. War is not. “We are in conflict” can be interpreted to mean “we share a problem.” A shared problem can best be met and resolved through shared efforts. Rather than facing off in confrontation, we should turn together to face our common future, united in a shared commitment to the flourishing of youth.

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114 Quotes on Peace and Peacebuilding, and Lessons Learned from them on Building Peace

A huge list of great quotes on peace and peacebuilding from the great thinkers of all kinds throughout history and from around the world. Organized into 7 categories with lessons learned from these great minds.

by Taylor O’Connor | 9 August 2023

Photo by Héctor J. Rivas on Unsplash

I’ve gone through my list of thousands of quotes I have collected over many years and pulled out the quotes I have that can help us deepen our understanding of peace and illuminate aspects of peacebuilding. Naturally, as a longtime peacebuilder, any time I found any quote associated with any aspect of peace, justice, or peacebuilding I added it to the database of quotes I keep on my computer.

These quotes encompass a wide spectrum of perspectives, spanning from renowned philosophers and Nobel laureates to artists, activists, and leaders who have left an indelible mark on history. And there is tons of wisdom collected in these quotes. It was a process to pull all of them out and organize them, but in so doing it helped me reflect deeper on my peacebuilding efforts and draw out lessons I can apply to building peace in a practical way.

Organization of quotes

So I’ve presented these quotes across the following 7 categories:

Defining peace and world peace

Linking personal peace and world peace, on the urgent need to work for peace, on personal responsibility for building peace, on building a culture of peace, on building peace infrastructure, on peacebuilding and peace processes.

In each category I’ll shared with you some reflection on what I learned associated with each, and posed some questions to help you reflect on what you learn and apply to your own life and efforts for peace. I also feel like these would be super useful to integrate into workshops to train peacebuilders or on general peace education. I might pull out some of these quotes by category and put together some simple warm up activities to get people thinking in my next peacebuilder training workshops that I lead.

Each quote includes something about the author’s profession, when they lived, and where they are from (sometimes also where they lived and worked if it is significant to their life) for a little context.

What quotes have been included and which quotes from my database I have not included are as follows:

• Included: short and medium size quotes. Note included: very long quotes.
• No quotes on personal peace unless they make the link to peace in the world around us.
• Not included: quotes that are just statements on the importance of peace, but that don’t teach us anything.
• No quotes specifically on the nature of war and violence. Those can be found in another blog post HERE .

I hope these are helpful for you in your personal life and in your peace efforts. If I miss any good quotes that should be included in any category feel free to pop them in the comments below. I’d love to get some new quotes.

Quotes on peace

The key messages from these quotes revolve around the idea that peace is more than just the absence of conflict; it’s an active process that requires empathy and active resolution of conflict. Many discuss the presence of justice as an essential for achieving peace. Most describe an element of what peace is while others explain what peace is not, warning us to beware of false peace. Have a read of these quotes below and spend a moment reflecting on what peace means for you.

“Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of creative alternatives for responding to conflict, alternatives to violence.” – Dorothy Thompson (Journalist, radio broadcaster, 1893 – 1961, USA) “Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.” – Martin Luther King Jr. (Religious leader, activist, 1929 – 1968, USA) “Peace equals the ability to handle conflict, with empathy, nonviolence, and creativity.” – Johan Galtung (Sociologist, peace scholar, 1930 – present, Norway) “Respect for the rights of others means peace.” – Benito Juàrez (Former President of Mexico, 1806 – 1872, Mexico) “We say no to the peace that keeps us on our knees, no to the peace that keeps us in chains, no to the false peace that denies the values and contributions of our peoples.” – Rigoberta Menchu (Activist, 1953 – present, Guatemala) “Peace is an environment where conflicts are resolved without violence, where people are free, not exploited, living so they can grow to their full potential.” – Gerard A. Vanderhaar (Writer, educator, 1931-2005, USA) “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.  Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free.” – Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama (Religious leader, 1940 – present, Tibet) “Peace produced by suppression is neither natural nor desirable.” – Anna Julia Cooper (Educator, activist, writer, 1858 – 1964, USA) “Peace does not mean an absence of conflicts; differences will always be there. Peace means solving these differences through peaceful means; through dialogue, education, knowledge; and through humane ways.” – Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama (Religious leader, 1940 – present, Tibet) “Peace as a positive condition of society, not merely as an interim between wars, is something so unknown that it casts no images on the mind’s screen.” – Denise Levertov (Poet, 1923 – 1997, England and USA) “Peace is always beautiful.” – Walt Whitman (Poet, 1819 – 1892, USA) “A peace that comes from fear and not from the heart is the opposite of peace.” – Gersonides (Philosopher, 1288 – 1344, France) “Peace is the work of justice indirectly, in so far as justice removes the obstacles to peace; but it is the work of charity (love) directly, since charity, according to its very notion, causes peace.” – Thomas Aquinas (Philosopher and theologian, 1225 – 1274, Italy) “If you want peace, work for justice.” – Pope Paul VI (Religious leader, 1897 – 1978, Italy) “Peace is not the absence of anything. Real peace is the presence of something beautiful. Both peace and the thirst for it have been in the heart of every human being in every century and every civilization.” – Prem Rawat (Author 1957 – present, India and USA) “Peace is more important than all justice; and peace was not made for the sake of justice, but justice for the sake of peace.” – Martin Luther (Theologian, writer, 1483 – 1546, Germany) “Peace with a club in hand is war.” – Portuguese Proverb “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 (Religious leader, 1917 – 1980, El Salvador) “You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.” – Malcolm X (Activist, religious leader, 1925 – 1965, USA) “To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire; and where they make a wilderness, they call it peace.” – Publius Cornelius Tacitus (Historian, politician, 56 – 120,  Roman Empire) “Peace is that state in which fear of any kind is unknown.” – John Buchan (Writer, historian, politician, 1875 – 1940, Scotland and Canada) “Peace is the happy natural state of man; war is corruption and disgrace.” – James Thompson (Poet, writer, 1834 – 1881, Scotland) “Peace cannot exist without justice, justice cannot exist without fairness, fairness cannot exist without development, development cannot exist without democracy, democracy cannot exist without respect for the identity of worth of cultures and peoples.” – Rigoberta Menchu (Activist, 1953 – present, Guatemala)

There are lots of quotes that link personal peace with world peace, or peace in the world around us. I put them in a separate category here from that on defining peace because I think this link is important for us to reflect on in our efforts to build a more peaceful world. Some fall into the trap of focusing solely on one of these elements and not the other whereas cultivating both simultaneously is the path we peacebuilders should all be on. The bridge between personal peace and world peace is illuminated with commentary on self-awareness, personal transformation, peaceful relationships, and compassionate action. Read these quotes and reflect on the interaction between personal peace and peace in the world around you, particularly associated with your own efforts to build peace.

“Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.” – Baruch Spinoza (Writer, philosopher, 1632 – 1677, Netherlands) “A large part of peace is genuinely wanting peace.” – Erasmus of Rotterdam (Philosopher, theologian, 1466 – 1536, Netherlands) “Peace is not a relationship of nations. It is a condition of mind brought about by a serenity of soul. Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is also a state of mind. Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people.” – Jawaharlal Nehru (Former Prime Minister of India, 1889 – 1964, India) “Five enemies of peace inhabit with us–avarice, ambition, envy, anger, and pride; if these were to be banished, we should infallibly enjoy perpetual peace.” – Francesco Petrarca (Scholar and poet, 1304 – 1374, Italy) “If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed — but hate these things in yourself, not in another.” – Mohandas Gandhi (Activist, lawyer, 1869 – 1948, India) “Only when there are many people who are pools of peace, silence, and understanding, will war disappear.” – Osho (Philopher, religious leader, 1931 – 1990, India) “While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.” – Francis of Assisi (Religious leader, 1181 – 1226, Italy) “When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.” – Peace Pilgrim (Peace activist, 1908 – 1981, USA) “The life of ‘peace’ is both an inner journey toward a disarmed heart and a public journey toward a disarmed world. This difficult but beautiful journey gives infinite meaning and fulfillment to life itself because our lives become a gift for the whole human race. With peace as the beginning, middle, and end of life, life makes sense.” – John Dear (Religious leader, activist, author, 1959 – present, USA) “When things are investigated, then true knowledge is achieved; when true knowledge is achieved, then the will becomes sincere; when the will is sincere, then the heart is set right (or then the mind sees right); when the heart is set right, then the personal life is cultivated; when the personal life is cultivated, then the family life is regulated; when the family life is regulated, then the national life is orderly; and when the national life is orderly, then there is peace in this world.” – Confucius (Philosopher, 551 – 479 BC, China) “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 (Philosopher, 4th century BC, China) “Until he extends the circle of compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.” – Albert Schweitzer (Theologian, humanitarian, medical doctor, 1875 – 1965, Germany and France) “Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it towards others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will also be in our troubled world.” – Etty Hillesum (Author, 1914 – 1943, Netherlands) “Peace begins with a smile.” – Mother Teresa (Religious leader, 1910 – 1997, Ottoman Empire, Macedonia, India) “First keep peace with yourself, then you can also bring peace to others.” – Thomas Kempis (Religious leader, author, 1380 – 1471, Roman Empire)

On the importance of building peace

These quotes underscore the necessity to take action to build peace. They emphasize the need to address challenges like poverty, disease, and ignorance. They describe peace as a continuous process that demands ongoing commitment. Peace is something that we need to work towards in the present and or efforts for peace can be integrated into daily life. Read these and think about how you can use what you learn to educate others about the urgent need to work for peace.

“Peace we want because there is another war to fight against poverty, disease and ignorance.” – Indira Gandhi (Former Prime Minister of India, 1917 – 1984, India) “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 (Diplomat, activist, 1884 – 1962, USA) “We will not learn to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.” – Jimmy Carter (Former President of the United States, 1924 – present, USA) “Peace is the only battle worth waging.” – Albert Camus (Philosopher, writer, 1913 – 1960, France) “No one is so foolish as to prefer to peace, war, in which, instead of sons burying their fathers, fathers bury their sons.” – Croesus (King of Lydia, 7 th /6 th century BCE, Lydia Kingdom – present day Turkey) “We must be prepared to make heroic sacrifices for the cause of peace that we make ungrudgingly for the cause of war. There is no task that is more important or closer to my heart.” – Albert Einstein (Physicist, 1879 – 1955, Germany and USA) “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 (Former Secretary-General of the United Nations, 1905 – 1961, Sweden) “I hope…that mankind will at length, as they call themselves reasonable creatures, have reason and sense enough to settle their differences without cutting throats; for in my opinion there never was a good war, or a bad peace.” – Benjamin Franklin (Political leader, writer, inventor, 1706 – 1790, USA) “For 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 (Diplomat, activist, 1884 – 1962, USA) “There is no time left for anything but to make peace work a dimension of our every waking activity.” – Elise Boulding (Sociologist, peace scholar, writer, Norway and USA) “If we are serious about peace, then we must work for it as ardently, seriously, continuously, carefully, and bravely as we have ever prepared for war.” – Wendell Berry (Writer, poet, activist, 1934 – present, USA) “It is not enough to say ‘We must not wage war.’ It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but the positive affirmation of peace.” – Martin Luther King Jr. (Religious leader, activist, 1929 – 1968, USA) “Peace is not something you must hope for in the future. It is a deepening of the present, and unless you look for it in the present, you will never find it.” – Thomas Merton, (Religious leader, writer, activist, 1915 – 1968, France, USA)

These quotes emphasize the need for everyone to take responsibility to end war and build peace. They focus on shifting societal mindsets to promote peace, healing and community responsibility. Read these and reflect on how we can use what is learned from them to help others recognize their responsibility to create a more peaceful, just world.

“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 (Theologian, writer, activist, 1915 – 1968, USA) “Make peace with the universe. Take joy in it. It will turn to gold. Resurrection will be now. Every moment, a new beauty.” – Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (Poet, religious scholar, mystic, 1207 – 1273, Khwarezmian Empire and Sultanate of Rum) “If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” – Leo Tolstoy (Writer, 1828 – 1910, Russia) “If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.” – John Lennon (Musician, 1940 – 1980, England) “To replace the old paradigm of war with a new paradigm of waging peace, we must be pioneers who can push the boundaries of human understanding. We must be doctors who can cure the virus of violence.  We must be soldiers of peace who can do more than preach to the choir. And we must be artists who will make the world our masterpiece.” – Paul K. Chappell (Peace activist, former soldier, 1980 – present, USA) “Community responsibility, when it is managed well, results in peace. And peace benefits everyone. Taking care of someone or something to which you are not immediately genetically related pays you back in other dimensions, and the payback is part of your wellbeing. Compassion is useful and beneficial for all.” – Katy Payne (Zoologist, 1937 – present, USA) “Peace hath higher tests of manhood than battle ever knew.” – John Greenleaf Whittier (Poet, activist, 1807 – 1892, USA) “The more we sweat in peace, the less we bleed in war.” – Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (Diplomat, politician, 1900 – 1990, India) “Peace is the only battle worth waging.” – Albert Camus (Philosopher, author, 1913 – 1960, France) “Those for whom peace is no more than a dream are asleep to the future.” – Jack DuVall (Activist, writer, media producer, 1946 – present, USA) “We live now in a global village and we are in one single family. It’s our responsibility to bring friendship and love from all different places around the world and to live together in peace.” – Jackie Chan, (Actor, filmmaker, martial artist, 1954 – present, Hong Kong)

On building peace

These quotes highlight different elements of a culture of peace, from education, to music, to monuments, cultural narratives, and much more. Read them and reflect on how you can use what you learn to help you in any effort you are involved in to build a culture of peace or to integrate your learning in any aspect of your life that can contribute to a culture of peace.

“We cannot have peace if we are only concerned with peace. War is not an accident. It is the logical outcome of a certain way of life. If we want to attack war, we have to attack that way of life.” – A. J. Muste (Theologian, activist, writer, 1885 – 1967, Netherlands and USA) “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 (Activist, 1974 – present, Nigeria) “War is not inherent in human beings. We learn war and we learn peace. The culture of peace is something which is learned, just as violence is learned and war culture is learned.” – Elise Boulding (Sociologist, author, peace scholar, 1920 – 2010, Norway and USA) “When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.” – Jimi Hendrix (Musician, 1942 – 1970, USA) “Poetry is an act of peace. Peace goes into the making of a poet as flour goes into the making of bread.” – Pablo Neruda (Poet, politician, 1904 – 1973, Chile) “Ignorance is a menace to peace.” – Paul Harris (Lawyer, founder of Rotary International, 1868 – 1947, USA) “You may call for peace as loudly as you wish, but where there is no brotherhood there can in the end be no peace.” – Max Lerner (Journalist, educator, 1902 – 1992, Russia and USA) “If peace . . . only had the music and pageantry of war, there’d be no wars.” – Sophie Kerr (Writer, 1880 – 1965, USA) “The strongest passions, and most dangerous weaknesses of the human breast; ambition, avarice, vanity, the honorable or venial love of fame, are all in conspiracy against the desire and duty of peace.” – Alexander Hamilton (Political leader, 1755 – 1804, USA) “Better than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings peace. Better than a thousand hollow verses is one verse that brings peace. Better than a hundred hollow lines is one line of the law, bringing peace.” – Gautama Buddha (Wandering ascetic and religious teacher, c. 5th to 4th century BC, Malla Republic) “Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned; until there is no longer first-class and second class citizens of any nation; until the color of a man’s skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes; until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race; until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained.” – Haile Selassie Former Emperor of Ethiopia, 1892 – 1975, Ethiopia) “Until we have the courage to recognize cruelty for what it is–whether its victim is human or animal–we cannot expect things to be much better in this world… We cannot have peace among men whose hearts delight in killing any living creature. By every act that glorifies or even tolerates such moronic delight in killing we set back the progress of humanity.” – Rachel Carson (Marine biologist, writer, conservationist, 1907 – 1964, USA) “Unless we teach children peace, someone else will teach them violence.” – Colman McCarthy (Journalist, teacher, peace activist, 1938 – present, USA) “The opposite of war is not peace, it’s creation.” – Jonathan Larson (Composer, playwright, 1960 – 1996, USA) “Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding. You cannot subjugate a nation forcibly unless you wipe out every man, woman, and child. Unless you wish to use such drastic measures, you must find a way of settling your disputes without resort to arms.” – Albert Einstein (Physicist, 1879 – 1955, Germany and USA) “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 (Former Secretary-General of the United Nations, 1938 – 2018, Ghana) “It’s odd how those who dismiss the peace movement as utopian, don’t hesitate to proffer the most absurdly dreamy reasons for going to war: to stamp out terrorism, install democracy, eliminate fascism, and most entertainingly, to rid the world of evil-doers.” – Arundhati Roy (Writer, activist, 1961 – present, India) “A people free to choose will always choose peace.” – Bernice Johnson Reagon (Musician, activist, 1942 – present, USA) “Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.” – George Carlin (Comedian, 1937 – 2008, USA) “Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.” – Maria Montessori (Physician, educator, 1870 – 1952, Italy) “We look forward to the time when the power to love will replace the love of power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.” – William Ellery Channing (Theologian, 1780 – 1842, USA) “War is an invention of the human mind. The human mind can invent peace.” – Norman Cousins (Journalist, author, peace activist, 1915 – 1990, USA) “Peace has its victories no less than war, but it doesn’t have as many monuments to unveil.” – Kin Hubbard (Cartoonist, journalist, 1868 – 1930, USA) “The social progress, order, security and peace of each country are necessarily connected with the social progress, order, security and peace of all other countries.” – Pope John XXIII (Religious leader, 1881 – 1963, Italy) “War will stop when we no longer praise it, or give it any attention at all. Peace will come wherever it is sincerely invited.” – Alice Walker (Writer, poet, activist, 1944 – present, USA)

These quotes comment on elements of our society, systems and structures that are needed to build a peaceful world. They highlight the need to shift the organization of our society from militarism towards the promotion of human needs. Read these and reflect on what system, structure and/or policy change you can advocate for that will build a more peaceful world.

“We must devise a system in which peace is more rewarding than war.” – Margaret Mead (Anthropologist, 1901 – 1978, USA) “You are not going to get peace with millions of armed men. The chariot of peace cannot advance over a road littered with cannon.” – David Lloyd (Comic artist, 1950 – present, England) “To preserve peace, we need weapons of smaller and men of larger caliber.” – Unknown author “Peace begins when the hungry are fed.” – Unknown author “Peace, to have meaning for many who have only known suffering in both peace and war, must be translated into bread or rice, shelter, health and education, as well as freedom and human dignity.” – Ralph Bunche (Political scientist, activist, 1904 – 1971, USA) “A treaty of Peace may, indeed, put an end to a particular war, yet not to the general condition of war, in which a pretext can always be found for new hostilities.” – Immanuel Kant (Philosopher, 1724 – 1804, Kingdom of Prussia) “I went into the Army believing that if you want peace you must prepare for war. I now believe that if you prepare thoroughly for war you will get it.” – Sir John Frederick Maurice (Military general, 1842 – 1912, England) “Peace is a practical positive policy, which must be attained by friendly co-operation between the nations, putting the good of all before the interests of each.” – Anna Ruth Fry (Writer, peace activist, 1878 – 1962, England) “If development is the new name for peace, war and preparations for war are the major enemy of the healthy development of peoples. If we take the common good of all humanity as our norm, instead of individual greed, peace would be possible.” – Pope John Paul II (Religious leader, 1920 – 2005, Poland and Italy) “To suggest that war can prevent war is a base play on words and a despicable form of warmongering. The objective of any who sincerely believe in peace clearly must be to exhaust every honorable recourse in the effort to save the peace. The world has had ample evidence that war begets only conditions that beget further war.” – Ralph Bunche (Diplomat, activist, mediator, 1904 – 1971, USA) “The pens which write against disarmament are made with the same steel from which guns are made.” – Aristide Briand (Former Prime Minister of France, 1862 – 1932, France) “We know how to organize warfare, but do we know how to act when confronted with peace?” – Jacques-Yves Cousteau (Oceanographer, filmmaker, writer, 1910 – 1997, French) “The way in which we can promote peace, is by promoting sustainable management of our resources, equitable distribution of these resources, and that the only way you can actually do that, is that then you have to have a political, economic system that facilitates that.” – Wangari Maathai (Activist, conservationist, 1940 – 2011, Kenya) “To have peace and not war, the drift toward a war economy, as facilitated by the moves and the demands of the sophisticated conservatives, must be stopped; to have peace without slump, the tactics and policies of the practical right must be overcome. The political and economic power of both must be broken.” – C. Wright Mills (Sociologist, author, 1916 – 1962, USA)

These quotes comment on other aspects of peacebuilding and peace processes. I hope that in them you can find some inspiration and creative ideas that you can integrate into your efforts to build peace. Read them over and see if you find something useful.

“Peace is not the product of a victory or a command. It has no finishing line, no final deadline, no fixed definition of achievement. Peace is a never-ending process, the work of many decisions.” – Oscar Arias (Former President of Costa Rica, 1940 – present, Costa Rica) “Building peace is more often about creating space, developing relationships, persevering in spite of overwhelming pessimism, and being flexible enough to respond to emerging opportunities, meager as they may be.” – John Paul Lederach (Peace scholar, writer, 1955 – present, USA) “There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.” – A.J. Muste (Theologian, activist, writer, 1885 – 1967, Netherlands and USA) “The road to peace is paved with dignity.” – Donna Hicks (Educator, writer, USA) “The beauty of peace is in trying to find solutions together.” – Dekha Ibrahim Abdi (Activist, NGO worker, 1964 – 2011, Kenya) “To fight and conquer in all our battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.” – Sun Tzu (Military strategist, philosopher, 544 BC – 496 BC, China) “I’m not disturbing the peace. I’m disturbing the war.” – Ammon Ashford Hennacy (Activist, 1893 – 1970, USA) “Peace is something you make with your adversaries, not with your friends.” – Johan Galtung (Sociologist, peace scholar, 1930 – present, Norway) “I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.” – Abraham Lincoln (Former President of the United States, 1809 – 1865, USA) “In settings of deep conflict, words and promises do not constitute an adequate measure that genuine change has taken place. People’s actions, attitudes, and behavior do.” – John Paul Lederach (Peace scholar, writer, 1955 – present, USA) “Peace cannot be bullied into existence.” – Ali Jarbawi (Political leader, professor, writer, 1954 – present, Palestine) “Without deep listening and gentle loving speech it is very difficult to move towards peace. Peace will only become a reality, when world leaders come to negotiations with the ability to hear the suffering at the root of all conflicts.” – Thich Nhat Hanh (Religious leader, writer, activist, 1926, Vietnam) “If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.” – Nelson Mandela, (Political leader, activist, lawyer, 1918 – 2013, South Africa)

I hope you enjoyed looking over this collection of quotes. I hope you found some inspiration, something to get you thinking about the nature of peace. And perhaps you have found ideas you can use in any effort to build peace.

We regularly update our database of quotes on peace and peacebuilding and update blog posts. If you know a good quote that should be added to this blog post, let us know by filling out a quick form. CLICK HERE to submit a quote for review to be added to this or any of our blog posts on quotes.

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125 Peace Quotes and Sayings

In this chaotic and busy world, everyone is in search of a sense of calm, understanding, and well…peace. Here are best Peace Quotes to help you find calmness and peace of mind.

Peace Quotes

•  “Mankind must remember that peace is not God’s gift to his creatures; peace is our gift to each other.” – Elie Wiesel

• “You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.” – Malcolm X

• “Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.” – Dalai Lama

•  “Learning to ignore things is one of the great paths to inner peace.” – Robert J. Sawyer

• “While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.” – St Francis of Assisi
• “Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.” – Lyndon B. Johnson
• “Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.” – St. Francis de Sales
• “If you cannot find peace within yourself, you will never find it anywhere else.” – Marvin Gaye
• “There is always a certain peace in being what one is, in being that completely.” – Ugo Betti
• “When you do the right thing, you get the feeling of peace and serenity associated with it. Do it again and again.” – Roy T. Bennett

Quotes about Peace

• “World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not just mere absence of violence. Peace is, I think, the manifestation of human compassion.” –  Dalai Lama
• “Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.” – John Wooden
• “Peace is not something you wish for, it is something you make, something you are, something you do, and something you give away.” –  Robert Fulghum
• “I think it’s naive to pray for world peace if we’re not going to change the form in which we live” – Godfrey Reggio
• “I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
• “You should feel beautiful and you should feel safe. What you surround yourself with should bring you peace of mind and peace of spirit.” – Stacy London
• “Peace is more important than all justice; and peace was not made for the sake of justice, but justice for the sake of peace.” – Ezra Taft Benson
• “The quest for peace begins in the home, in the school and in the workplace.” – Silvia Cartwright
• “Peace is more important than all justice; and peace was not made for the sake of justice, but justice for the sake of peace.” – Martin Luther
• “Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.” – John F. Kennedy

Peace of Mind Quotes

• “Be grateful in life. Being grateful for what you have in life is a great way to develop peace of mind” – Invajy
• “You cannot find peace by avoiding life.” – Michael Cunningham
• “Many people think excitement is happiness…. But when you are excited you are not peaceful. True happiness is based on peace.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
• “Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.” – George Carlin
• “Learning to distance yourself from all the negativity is one of the greatest lessons to achieve inner peace.” – Roy T. Bennett
• “Love and peace of mind do protect us. They allow us to overcome the problems that life hands us. They teach us to survive… to live now… to have the courage to confront each day.” – Bernie Siegel
• “Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy and serenity.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
• “Nobody can bring you peace but yourself.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace.” – Mahatma 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

Peace Short Quotes

• “Let the peace of this day be here tomorrow when I wake up.” – Thomas Pynchon
• “What we need is Star Peace and not Star Wars.” – Mikhail Gorbachev
• “Master the art of acceptance and live a peaceful Life.” – Invajy
• “Yes, we love peace, but we are not willing to take wounds for it, as we are for war.” – John Holmes
• “Peace is when time doesn’t matter as it passes by.” – Maria Schell
• “Peace is always beautiful.” – Walt Whitman
• “People always make war when they say they love peace.” – Charlie Chaplin
• “It is madness for sheep to talk peace with a wolf.” – Thomas Fuller
• “If there is to be any peace it will come through being, not having.” – Henry Miller
• “You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.” – Eckhart Tolle

Inner Peace Quotes

• “If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.” – John Lennon
• “Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.” – Albert Einstein
• “Peace is not the absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.” – Ronald Reagan
• “Peace is the only battle worth waging.” – Albert Camus
• “Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.” – Albert Schweitzer
• “Peace can become a lens through which you see the world. Be it. Live it. Radiate it out. Peace is an inside job.” – Wayne Dyer
• “Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.” – Siddhārtha Gautama
• “There is “what is” only when there is no comparison at all, and to live with what is, is to be peaceful.” – Bruce Lee
• “Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.” – Dale Carnegie

Best Peace Quotes

• “Stress is a choice. So is inner peace.” – Lewis Howes
• “When you make peace with yourself, you make peace with the world.” – Maha Ghosananda
• “They call it “peace of mind” but maybe it should be called “peace from mind”.” – Navil Ravikant
• “It is my conviction that there is no way to peace – peace is the way.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
• “If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.” – Nelson Mandela
• “Peace of mind is that mental condition in which you have accepted the worst.” – Lin Yutang
• “We don’t realize that, somewhere within us all, there does exist a supreme self who is eternally at peace.” – Elizabeth Gilbert
• “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
• “Do not be afraid to take a chance on peace, to teach peace, to live peace…Peace will be the last word of history.” – Pope John Paul II
• “Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.” – Thomas Jefferson

Famous Peace Quotes

• “I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.” – Thomas Paine
• “He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees.” – Benjamin Franklin
• “There is peace even in the storm.” – Vincent Van Gogh
• “Inner peace doesn’t come from getting what we want, but from remembering who we are.” – Marianne Williamson
• “It is not enough to win a war; it is more important to organize the peace.” – Aristotle
• “Not one of us can rest, be happy, be at home, be at peace with ourselves, until we end hatred and division.” – John Lewis
• “Make peace with your past so it won’t destroy your present.” – Paulo Coelho
• “There is no ‘way to peace,’ there is only ‘peace.’” – Mahatma Gandhi
• “Sometimes you can find peace of mind by transferring yourself to different situations. They’re just reminders to stay calm.” – Yves Behar
• “You will find peace not by trying to escape your problems, but by confronting them courageously. You will find peace not in denial, but in victory.” – J. Donald Walters
•  “We must restore hope to young people, help the old, be open to the future, spread love. Be poor among the poor. We need to include the excluded and preach peace.” – Pope Francis
• “The goal of life is peace of mind not money, as fish finds peace in water not in honey” – Invajy
• “If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
• “Peace is liberty in tranquility.” – Marcus Tulius Cicero
• “Peace is such hard work. Harder than war. It takes way more effort to forgive than to kill.” – Rae Carson
• “The lessons from the peace process are clear; whatever life throws at us, our individual responses will be all the stronger for working together and sharing the load.” – Benjamin Franklin
• “The only peace is being out of earshot.” – Mason Cooley
• “We should live, act, and say nothing to the injury of anyone. It is not only best as a matter of principle, but it is the path to peace and honor.” – Robert E. Lee
• “If you are depressed you are living in the past if you are anxious you are living in the future, if you are at peace, you are living in the present.” – Lao Tzu
• “The life of inner peace, being harmonious and without stress, is the easiest type of existence.” – Norman Vincent Peale

Popular Peace Quotes

• “Peace does not mean an absence of conflicts; differences will always be there. Peace means solving these differences through peaceful means; through dialogue, education, knowledge; and through humane ways.” – Dalai Lama
• “Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.” – Maria Montessori
• “Peace is more than the absence of war. Peace is accord. Harmony.” –  Laini Taylor
• “No person, no place, and no thing has any power over us, for ‘we’ are the only thinkers in our mind. When we create peace and harmony and balance in our minds, we will find it in our lives.” – Louise Hay
• “Peace is a meditation achieved through still mind.” – Invajy
• “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
• “Forgiveness equals inner peace – more peaceful people equals more world peace.” – Richard Branson
• “Don’t hope that events will turn out the way you want, welcome events in whichever way they happen: this is the path to peace.” – Epictetus
• “Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace.” – Buddha
• “For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Inspirational Peace Quotes

• “Peace begins with a smile.” – Mother Teresa
• “Peace is not only better than war, but infinitely more arduous.” – George Bernard Shaw
• “The day I understood everything, was the day I stopped trying to figure everything out. The day I knew peace was the day I let everything go.” – C. Joybell C.
• “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” – Jimi Hendrix
• “If someone thinks that peace and love are just a cliche that must have been left behind in the 60s, that’s a problem. Peace and love are eternal.” – John Lennon
• “Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.” – Ronald Reagan
• “Go in the direction of where your peace is coming from.” – C. Joybell C.
• “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
• “I still believe that peace and plenty and happiness can be worked out some way. I am a fool.” – Kurt Vonnegut
• “Peace is its own reward.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Inspiring Peace Quotes

• “It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.” – John F. Kennedy
• “Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.” – Amelia Earhart
• “True peace is not merely the absence of war, it is the presence of justice.” – Jane Addams
• “Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.” – Baruch Spinoza
• “We are not at peace with others because we are not at peace with ourselves, and we are not at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with God.” – Thomas Merton
• “People always make war when they say they love peace.” – D.H. Lawrence
• “Peace brings with it so many positive emotions that it is worth aiming for in all circumstances.” – Estella Eliot
• “Everywhere I have sought peace and not found it, except in a corner with a book.” – Thomas a Kempis
• “I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I want the understanding which bringeth peace.” – Helen Keller
• “Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations… entangling alliances with none.” – Thomas Jefferson
• “Better than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings peace.” – Buddha
• “We do not need guns and bombs to bring peace, we need love and compassion.” – Mother Teresa
• “If you want peace, stop fighting. If you want peace of mind, stop fighting with your thoughts.” – Peter McWilliams
• “Peace begins when expectation ends.” – Sri Chinmoy
• “A people free to choose will always choose peace.” – Ronald Reagan
• “It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.” – Martin Luther King Jr .
• “Peace isn’t an experience free of challenges, free of rough and smooth, it’s an experience that’s expansive enough to include all that arises without feeling threatened.” – Pema Chödrön
• “Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love.” – St. Francis of Assisi
• “You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don’t ever count on having both at once.” – Robert A. Heinlein
• “Be a peacemaker in everyday life. Display peace in everything you do. Be peace. Live in peace.” – Buddhist Proverb

Quotes on Peace

• “We make war that we may live in peace.” – Aristotle
• “Peace by persuasion has a pleasant sound, but I think we should not be able to work it. We should have to tame the human race first, and history seems to show that that cannot be done.” – Mark Twain
• “Peace doesn’t require two people; it requires only one. It has to be you. The problem begins and ends there.” – Katie Byron
• “The most valuable possession you can own is an open heart. The most powerful weapon you can be is an instrument of peace.” – Carlos Santana
• “Peace has to be created, in order to be maintained. It will never be achieved by passivity and quietism.” – Dorothy Thompson

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100 Mahatma Gandhi Peace Quotes

As leader of the Indian independence movement and pioneer of the philosophy and strategy of non-violence, Mahatma Gandhi´s influence on world peace is immeasurable. Below are 100 select quotes by this remarkable man. Also check out this video series on Gandhi and the International Day of Nonviolence .

“A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.”

“A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.”

“A ‘No’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.”

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

“A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.”

“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”

“An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so.”

“Anger is the enemy of non-violence and pride is a monster that swallows it up.”

“Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions.”

“Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.”

“Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.”

“Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into.”

“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.”

“Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.”

“God sometimes does try to the uttermost those whom he wishes to bless.”

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

“Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress.”

“Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.”

“I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.”

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

“I cannot teach you violence, as I do not myself believe in it. I can only teach you not to bow your heads before any one even at the cost of your life.”

“I claim that human mind or human society is not divided into watertight compartments called social, political and religious. All act and react upon one another.”

“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.”

“I know, to banish anger altogether from one’s breast is a difficult task. It cannot be achieved through pure personal effort. It can be done only by God’s grace.”

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

“I offer you peace. I offer you love. I offer you friendship. I see your beauty. I hear your need. I feel your feelings.”

“I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.”

“If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.”

“If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.”

“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.”

“In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.”

“Increase of material comforts, it may be generally laid down, does not in any way whatsoever conduce to moral growth.”

“Intolerance betrays want of faith in one’s cause.”

“Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit.”

“- I shall not fear anyone on Earth. – I shall fear only God. – I shall not bear ill will toward anyone. – I shall not submit to injustice from anyone. – I shall conquer untruth by truth. And in resisting untruth, I shall put up with all suffering.”

“It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honored by the humiliation of their fellow beings.”

“It is any day better to stand erect with a broken and bandaged head then to crawl on one’s belly, in order to be able to save one’s head.”

“It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.”

“Justice that love gives is a surrender, justice that law gives is a punishment.”

“Let the first act of every morning be to make the following resolve for the day:”

“Let us all be brave enough to die the death of a martyr, but let no one lust for martyrdom.”

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

“Love is the strongest force the world possesses and yet it is the humblest imaginable.”

“Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.”

“Man lives freely only by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him.”

“Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.”

“Man should forget his anger before he lies down to sleep.”

“Morality is contraband in war.”

“Morality is the basis of things and truth is the substance of all morality.”

“My life is my message.”

“My religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God. Non-violence is the means of realizing Him.”

“No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive.”

“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”

“Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.”

“Non-violence and truth are inseparable and presuppose one another.”

“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.”

“Non-violence is the article of faith.”

“Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed.”

“Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.”

“Non-violence requires a double faith, faith in God and also faith in man.”

“Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.”

“Peace is its own reward.”

“Poverty is the worst form of violence.”

“Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived”

“Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening.”

“Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory.”

“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.”

“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”

“The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace.”

“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problem.”

“The good man is the friend of all living things.”

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

“The law of sacrifice is uniform throughout the world. To be effective it demands the sacrifice of the bravest and the most spotless.”

“The main purpose of life is to live rightly, think rightly, act rightly. The soul must languish when we give all our thought to the body.”

“The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.”

“The pursuit of truth does not permit violence on one’s opponent.”

“There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.”

“There is a sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed.”

“There is more to life than increasing its speed.”

“Those who know how to think need no teachers.”

“Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is.”

“To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.”

“To deprive a man of his natural liberty and to deny to him the ordinary amenities of life is worse then starving the body; it is starvation of the soul, the dweller in the body.”

“Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear.”

“Truth never damages a cause that is just.”

“Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained.”

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

“We may never be strong enough to be entirely nonviolent in thought, word and deed. But we must keep nonviolence as our goal and make strong progress towards it.”

“We should meet abuse by forbearance. Human nature is so constituted that if we take absolutely no notice of anger or abuse, the person indulging in it will soon weary of it and stop.”

“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?”

“What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.”

“Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it.”

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.”

“Where love is, there God is also.”

“Where there is love there is life.”

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

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”

“Your beliefs become your thoughts, Your thoughts become your words, Your words become your actions, Your actions become your habits, Your habits become your values, Your values become your destiny. The future depends on what you do today.”

Read other Peace Quotes and learn more about Nonviolence and other Notable Peacemakers .

Want to expand your knowledge of Gandhi? Be amazed at www.gandhiserve.com .

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The Meaning of ‘War Is Peace. Freedom Is Slavery. Ignorance Is Strength’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘War Is Peace. Freedom Is Slavery. Ignorance Is Strength.’ These three short sentences are a central part of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949): a book which is probably the best-known dystopian novel ever written.

It’s also one of the books most people lie about having read, perhaps because they feel they already know the overarching plot points and key ideas within the novel, so well-known are they even to non-readers.

But what precisely does ‘War Is Peace. Freedom Is Slavery. Ignorance Is Strength’ mean in the context of Nineteen Eighty-Four ?

George Orwell (1903-50), born Eric Arthur Blair, was one of the most remarkable writers of the first half of the twentieth century. His essays are among the best in the English language, not least because of their clear-headedness, married with a clarity of expression. Indeed, Orwell even wrote an essay about the need for political language to be clear and direct; we need his advice now more than ever.

As well as writing numerous essays and short journalistic pieces, he also wrote a number of novels. Two of these, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four , remain popular and widely studied in schools and universities.

Orwell’s last novel before his untimely death from tuberculosis was Nineteen Eighty-Four , completed in 1948 and published a year later. The novel is a classic example of dystopian fiction, and depicts a near future in which Britain has become a one-party state, in which thinking the wrong thoughts can be a crime (see ‘thoughtcrime’) and land you in trouble with the ‘thought police’. The dictator who rules over this totalitarian state is known as Big Brother.

The protagonist is Winston Smith, who works for the Ministry of Truth (a body partly inspired by Orwell’s time spent working at the BBC ) where old historical records are altered, to remove any embarrassing facts that don’t fit with the party line.

Early on, we are introduced to the ‘War is Peace’ slogan, along with the accompanying slogans ‘Freedom is Slavery’ and ‘Ignorance is Strength’:

The Ministry of Truth – Minitrue, in Newspeak – was startlingly different from any other object in sight. It was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace after terrace, 300 metres into the air. From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party:

  WAR IS PEACE

  FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

  IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

And again, later, Winston recalls these slogans from the Ministry of Truth, before finding them inscribed in other places, too:

Like an answer, the three slogans on the white face of the Ministry of Truth came back to him:

He took a twenty-five cent piece out of his pocket. There, too, in tiny clear lettering, the same slogans were inscribed, and on the other face of the coin the head of Big Brother.

This quotation, presenting three sets of axiomatic statements which are fundamentally contradictory, exemplifies the ways in which the totalitarian society in Orwell’s novel alters the meanings of words in order to manipulate people’s understanding of the world around them.

How can war be its opposite, peace? How can freedom be enslaving, when the two things stand in stark opposition to each other? And how can ignorance be lauded as a strength? It is from such topsy-turvy statements that the dystopian world of Orwell’s novel was created.

But ‘War is Peace’ is explained in more detail in the ‘book within a book’ that features in Nineteen Eighty-Four . This (fictional) book is titled The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism and its author is Emmanuel Goldstein, a rival of Big Brother who supposedly runs the Brotherhood, a resistance movement. Chapter III of Goldstein’s book, which Winston reads, is titled ‘War is Peace’, and explains the origins of the Party’s slogan:

The war, therefore, if we judge it by the standards of previous wars, is merely an imposture. […] But though it is unreal it is not meaningless. It eats up the surplus of consumable goods, and it helps to preserve the special mental atmosphere that a hierarchical society needs. War, it will be seen, is now a purely internal affair. In the past, the ruling groups of all countries, although they might recognize their common interest and therefore limit the destructiveness of war, did fight against one another, and the victor always plundered the vanquished. In our own day they are not fighting against one another at all. The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact.

War, then, against some imagined enemy helps to mobilise society and keep its hierarchical structures in place. People become unified in a wartime situation and when on a wartime footing. Goldstein goes on:

The very word ‘war’, therefore, has become misleading. It would probably be accurate to say that by becoming continuous war has ceased to exist. The peculiar pressure that it exerted on human beings between the Neolithic Age and the early twentieth century has disappeared and been replaced by something quite different. The effect would be much the same if the three super-states, instead of fighting one another, should agree to live in perpetual peace, each inviolate within its own boundaries.

Goldstein then continues, explaining how the terms  war  and  peace  become interchangeable in the new political landscape:

For in that case each would still be a self-contained universe, freed for ever from the sobering influence of external danger. A peace that was truly permanent would be the same as a permanent war. This – although the vast majority of Party members understand it only in a shallower sense – is the inner meaning of the Party slogan: WAR IS PEACE.

Through being united by a common hatred of ‘the enemy’, then, the people of Oceania in Orwell’s novel remain focused on their shared purpose, which is to win the war. But war in the old sense has become meaningless, has ceased to exist: it is merely a device by which the fabric of society is kept going, the way ‘peace’ is maintained.

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Nelson Mandela Quotes About Peace

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No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

Negotiation and discussion are the greatest weapons we have for promoting peace and development.

Courageous people do not fear forgiving, for the sake of peace.

If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.

Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great, you can be that generation

I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself.

I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one's head pointed toward the sun, one's feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.

Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.

Freedom is indivisible; the chains on any one of my people were the chains on all of them, the chains on all of my people were the chains on me.

The best weapon is to sit down and talk.

There are many people who feel that it is useless and futile to continue talking about peace and non-violence against a government whose only reply is savage attacks on an unarmed and defenceless people.

Nonviolence is a good policy when the conditions permit.

Intervention only works when the people concerned seem to be keen for peace.

One effect of sustained conflict is to narrow our vision of what is possible.

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Nelson Mandela

• Born: July 18, 1918
• Died: December 5, 2013
• Occupation: Former President of South Africa
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