In celebration of the October 2 birthday (1869) of Mahandas K. Ghandi, the great peace activist and statesman of India, who promoted civil disobedience and walked very softly, I offer these quotes concerning war and peace.
From Mahatma himself;
"Permanent good can never be the outcome of untruth and violence."
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall."
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Peace activist, Indian statesman (1869-1948)
From Generals and Warriors;
Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. Omar N. Bradley : U.S. General (1893-1981)
~~
"I like to think that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
Dwight David Eisenhower : U.S. General and 34th president (1890-1969)
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"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
Herman Goering: German Military and Nazi Leader, International war criminal (1893-1946)
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"It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation." "War is hell."
William Tecumseh Sherman: Union General in the American Civil War (1820-1891)
From Statesmen and world leaders;
"Youth is the first victim of war - the first fruit of peace. It takes 20 years or more of peace to make a man; it takes only 20 seconds of war to destroy him." Boudewijn I, King of Belgium (1934-1993)
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"In taking revenge a man is but even with his enemy, but in passing it over he is superior, for it is a prince's part to pardon."
Francis Bacon: essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626)
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"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little."
Edmund Burke: statesman and writer (1729-1797)
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"Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again."
Dag Hammarskjöld: 2nd UN Secretary General (1905-1961)
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"I am not one of those who believe that a great army is the means of maintaining peace, because if you build up a great profession those who form parts of it want to exercise their profession."
Woodrow Wilson: 28th US president, Nobel laureate (1856-1924)
From writers and other artists;
"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against its government."
Edward Abbey: naturalist and author (1927-1989)
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"The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border."
Pablo Casals: Cellist, composer and Conductor (1876 – 1973)
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"We are all in the same boat, in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty."
G.K. Chesterton: essayist and novelist (1874-1936)
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"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."
Jimi Hendrix: musician, singer and songwriter (1942-1970)
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"In war, there are no unwounded soldiers." Jose Narosky: writer
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"In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful."
Leo Tolstoy: novelist and philosopher (1828-1910)
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"Did you know that the worldwide food shortage that threatens up to five hundred million children could be alleviated at the cost of only one day, only ONE day, of modern warfare."
Peter Ustinov: actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
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"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but
there must never be a time when we fail to protest."
Elie Wiesel: Novelist, philosopher, humanitarian, political activist and Holocaust survivor.(1928-)
From a child;
"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."
Anne Frank: child diarist and concentration camp victim (1929 – 1945)
From the wise whose names have been lost in time;
"When two elephants fight it is the grass that gets trampled." African proverb
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"Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it." Anonymous
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"The man who strikes first admits that his ideas have given out.
Chinese Proverb
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"A great war leaves the country with three armies - an army of cripples,
an army of mourners, and an army of thieves." German proverb
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"Without retaliation evils would one day become extinct from the world."
Ibo saying
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From those who have studied Society;
"The man who prefers his country before any other duty shows the same spirit as the man who surrenders every right to the state. They both deny that right is superior to authority."
Lord Acton: historian (1834-1902)
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"The day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides and gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, we shall have discovered fire." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: Jesuit Priest, paleontologist and philosopher(1881-1955)
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"No society that feeds its children on tales of successful violence can
expect them not to believe that violence in the end is rewarded."
Margaret Mead: anthropologist (1901-1978)
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And from religious leaders;
All forms of violence, especially war, are totally unacceptable as means to settle disputes between and among nations, groups and persons. "
"Nonviolence does not mean that we remain indifferent to a problem. On the contrary, it is important to be fully engaged. However, we must behave in a way that does not benefit us alone. We must not harm the interests of others. Nonviolence therefore is not merely the absence of violence. It involves a sense of compassion and caring. It is almost a manifestation of compassion."
"Internal peace is an essential first step to achieving peace in the world. How do you cultivate it? It's very simple. In the first place by realizing clearly that all mankind is one, that human beings in every country are members of one and the same family."
"If we looked down at the world from space, we would not see any demarcations of national boundaries. We would simply see one small planet, just one."
Dalai Lama, Spiritual Leader and author (1935- )
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"If we have no peace it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other."
Mother Theresa (born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu): Missionary, Nobel Peace Laureate, beatified by Roman Catholic Church (1910-1997)
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May these words and thoughts help spread the peace and harmony we so desperately need in this world.
Peace and Love,
Ann Jay
Monday, October 1, 2007
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