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Peace
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“There can be only one peace which will be acceptable to the people of this country. That is a peace which takes every precaution in our power to see to it that neither Germany nor Japan has any avoidable opportunity of starting this business again.”
Anthony Eden (1897–1977) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (29 September 1944)
“This means that gravestones are fragile and granite is softer than wax. Absurd, absurd, absurd! From such absurdity I shall soon turn gray or change into another person. Why do you beckon me with your hand? For one moment of peace I would give the peace of the tomb.”
Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966) said by 1966 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My dynamite will sooner lead to peace than a thousand world conventions. As soon as men will find that in one instant, whole armies can be utterly destroyed, they surely will abide by golden peace.”
Alfred Nobel (1833–1896) said by 1896 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Military Quotation Book (2002) by James Charlton, p. 114.
“I will be double-damned to a better Hell than Hellpepper Planet if I will have my ending here in peace! Peace be not the end of my epic! An epic is already failed if it have an ending. I don't care how it ended the first time — it will not end the same now!”
R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If peace cannot be maintained with honour, it is no longer peace.”
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (1792–1878) first seen 1853 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Greenock, 19 September 1853
“Peace is the only path to true security; and peace requires both free speech and willingness to listen.”
Newton Lee wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Humankind too often cooks up an excuse to start war instead of making peace. Rather than developing better strategies to win wars, we should focus on better recipes to attain peace.”
Newton Lee wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We all want peace, but words without actions are not enough to bring peace to the world.”
Newton Lee wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“After wars peace, after peace, another war. Every day men are born and others die.”
Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let me beg my readers to do their utmost for the success of the Peace Ballot. There is no single thing which they can do of greater value for Peace. … Every vote is wanted and may contribute to prevent war and save the lives of countless thousands of our fellow citizens.”
Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood (1864–1958) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Avoidable War : Lord Cecil and the Policy of Principle, 1933-1935 (1999) by J. Kenneth Brody, Ch. 11 : Voting For Peace, p. 173
“It has to be possible to feel the pain in one community without denying it in another. It has to be! That is perhaps the most necessary precondition for peace because real peace here will clearly be difficult! It's gonna be struggled toward as part of a larger pursuit of justice which will, in turn, require an honest and uncomfortable reckoning with all the decisions that brought us to this point.”
John Oliver (born 1977) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Last Week Tonight -- "Israel-Hamas War" (ff. 0:29:30) (12 November 2023)
“[Peace praxis is] a peace process that deals with conflict integratively.”
Kenneth Boulding (1910–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 140 as cited in: Joseph De Rivera (2008) Handbook on Building Cultures of Peace. p. 243
“Classical poetry counts on people's similarity. It regards idea associations as unequivocal. This is a mistake. In any case, it rests on a fulcrum of idea associations: 'Above the peaks is peace.'.. .The poet counts on poetic feelings. And what is a poetic feeling? The whole poetry of peace / quiet stands or falls on the reader's ability to feel. Words are not judged here.”
Kurt Schwitters (1887–1948) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In: 'Consistent Poetry Art', Schwitters' contribution to 'Magazine G', No. 3, 1924, ed. Hans Richter; as quoted in I is Style, ed. Siegfried Gohr & Gunda Luyken, (commissioned by Rudi Fuchs, director of the Stedelijk Mu…
“The world and its peoples being as they are, there is no easy or quick or infallible approach to a secure peace. It is only by patient, persistent, undismayed effort, by trial and error, that peace can be won. Nor can it be won cheaply, as the taxpayer is learning.”
Ralph Bunche (1904–1971) said by 1971 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 honourable recourse in the effort to save the peace. The world has had ample evidence that war begets only conditions which beget further war.”
Ralph Bunche (1904–1971) said by 1971 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As long as we live in a system of states, and as long as the roots of fascism and imperialist aggression have not finally been extirpated, our vigilance in regard to possible new violators of peace should not slacken, and concern for the strengthening of cooperation between the peace-loving powers will continue to be our most important duty.”
Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Strategy and Tactics of Soviet Foreign Policy (1963) by John Malcolm Mackintosh, p. 4
“Only when the masses are reassured, can the country be at peace. Only when the country is at peace, can the leaders be relieved.”
Wen Jiabao (born 1942) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Wen Jiabao (2008) cited in: "Sorry seems to be the newest word" at BBC News, 9 February 2008
“Without peace, there can be no progress on the Earth. So let us work for peace with hearts filled with love. For when we pass from this world, all we really take with us is love - endless, infinite love.”
Steven M. Greer (born 1955) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Peace is for the purification of one's mind. Power is for the growth of the community. Having established the community with power, one should then establish supreme peace.”
Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The defeatists should fear Allah lest they distort this religion and cause it to become weak on the basis of the claim that it is a religion of peace. Yes, it is the religion of peace but in the sense of saving all of mankind from worshiping anything other than Allah and submitting all of mankind to the rule of Allah.”
Sayyid Qutb (1906–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Peace be with you. Receive my peace unto yourselves. Beware that no one lead you astray saying Lo here or lo there! For the Son of Man is within you. Follow after Him! Those who seek Him will find Him. Go then and preach the gospel of the Kingdom. Do not lay down any rules beyond what I appointed you, and do not give a law like the lawgiver lest you be constrained by it.”
Jesus (6 BC–33) said by 33 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Church has consistently taught that justice and charity are the foundations of peace. It may be right to think of “charity as the soul and justice as the substance of international peace”.”
Kurien Kunnumpuram (1931–2018) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Kunnumpuram, K. (ed) (2007) World Peace: An Impossible Dream?, Mumbai: St Pauls
“Peace is the gift of God who through the death and resurrection of Christ, reconciled humans with himself and with one another. However, peace is also a human achievement since it is to be ushered in through the practice of love and justice.”
Kurien Kunnumpuram (1931–2018) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Kunnumpuram, K. (ed) (2007) World Peace: An Impossible Dream?, Mumbai: St Pauls
“To work for peace and reconciliation is central to the mission of the Church. For the Church exists in order to carry on the saving work of Jesus under the guidance of the Spirit. And his saving work is interpreted in the New Testament as reconciliation and peace-making. According to Paul, God was in Christ Jesus reconciling the world to himself.”
Kurien Kunnumpuram (1931–2018) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Kunnumpuram, K. (ed) (2007) World Peace: An Impossible Dream?, Mumbai: St Pauls
“Without inner peace, outer peace is impossible.”
Kelsang Gyatso (1931–2022) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Transform Your Life: A Blissful Journey (2001)
“For us to find lasting peace between people, we must first make peace with nature.”
Lewis Pugh (born 1969) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 28 September 2014, Sunday Times
“At first thought , we might say, 'our job is to win a war'...but I am sure it would be closer to the hearts of all of us to say, 'We are fighting a war to assure a peace...our kind of peace.'”
Carole Lombard (1908–1942) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speaking at an Indianapolis war-bond rally (15 January 1942)
“The condition of this task is training your own people in organising and leadership so that there can be some governance of the poor, by the poor and for the poor, and not simply a governance of them. This is a move from hosting the peace talks to actively seeking the peace. Pursuing it is a matter of necessity to your own flourishing.”
Maurice Glasman, Baron Glasman (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The moral consciousness can sustain the mocking gaze of the political man only if the certitude of peace dominates the evidence of war. Such a certitude is not obtained by a simple play of antitheses. The peace of empires issued from war rests on war. It does not restore to the alienated beings their lost identity. For that a primordial and original relation with being is needed.”
Emmanuel Levinas (1906–1995) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Totality and Infinity (1961)
“We, the people, were denied of the right even to mention the word peace or peace partisans and everyone related to them had to suffer from imprisonment as if it were an unpardonable crime. But now, after the people have been liberated from slavery, and after July 14 has dawned on us, this Republic and her sons have been liberated and have been marching on the path of freedom ever since.”
Abd al-Karim Qasim (1914–1963) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech delivered at the second congress of the peace partisans (April 14, 1959).
“I am with all the parties of all trends if their aims are to serve the homeland, freedom and peace. Nothing will keep me far from them, neither religion, political parties, language nor nationality; I am with them and we will always march forward hand in hand in the procession of freedom and peace.”
Abd al-Karim Qasim (1914–1963) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech delivered at the second congress of the peace partisans (April 14, 1959).
“Now that the fighting has ended, there must be no letdown. There must be watchful waiting. Victory is not the end, but the beginning. We must establish peace- a firm, a just, and an enduring peace.”
William Halsey Jr. (1882–1959) first seen 1300 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Excerpt from Halsey's radio broadcast to the United States Third Fleet at 1300 on 15 August 1945, p. 272
“World peace is threatened not only by weapons of mass destruction but also by conventional weapons which have led to countless violations of human rights, including the rights to life and to physical integrity. A strong treaty can contribute greatly to international and regional peace, security and stability.”
Alfred-Maurice de Zayas (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Independent Expert is persuaded that recognition of peace as a human right will promote a democratic and equitable international order and that national and international democratization will reduce conflict, since peoples want peace. It is Governments that stumble into war.”
Alfred-Maurice de Zayas (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is time to reinvigorate the UN General Assembly so that it can exercise a more decisive role in peace-making and peace-keeping, consistent with the will of the international community.”
Alfred-Maurice de Zayas (born 1947) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rights expert urges the UN General Assembly to adopt a more decisive role in peace-making (For International Day of Peace, Saturday 21 September 2013) .
“States have the sacred duty to ensure peace, while individuals and peoples have the right to peace.”
Alfred-Maurice de Zayas (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Won’t you help the [g]overnment in saving Gujarat? Won’t you help us in maintaining peace and harmony? The Government of Gujarat appeals to you for help, appeals to you for śānti (peace) and saṁyam (restraint [or] self-discipline).”
Narendra Modi (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The world as a whole is full of problems and difficulties and it is most important that every country which loves its Freedom and wants to maintain its Independence and sovereignty should work for peace and try to see that there is disarmament in the world which alone will lead to real peace.”
Lal Bahadur Shastri (1904–1966) said by 1966 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We Hungarians accept principle that in time when Germany and Italy fight their giant struggle to guarantee better future of Europe and for fair and permanent peace, small and middle-sized states in the central Europe can only have the obligation to guard and secure in every way peace and understanding in their countries.”
János Esterházy (1901–1957) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: About international relationships. Parliamentary speech on November 26, 1940.
“For some reason the settlement enterprise is being accused of being an obstacle to peace. Personally, I explain at each possible forum that the obstacle to peace is the objection by the Arabs to it and the fact that they do not want us here.”
Reuven Rivlin (born 1939) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Israel national news, 1 November 2012
“Previous prime ministers, be it William Gladstone who said, 'There will never be peace on this earth as long as we have the Koran, it's an accursed and violent book.' Then we have Winston Churchill who said, 'Islam in a man is like rabies in a dog.' And then we have David Cameron, who says Islam is a religion of peace. What's changed? Because the [Koran] hasn't changed.”
Tommy Robinson (born 1982) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Security" is a reality only where there is true peace between neighbors, as in the case of Holland/Belgium, Sweden/Norway, the United States/Canada. In the absence of peace there is no security, and no geographic-strategic settlement on the land can change this. There is no direct link between security and the territories.”
Yeshayahu Leibowitz (1903–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Peace at the price of one's reason can only be that "evil peace" St. Augustine speaks of as the violent enforcement of injustice. (Ch. 1)”
John Senior (1923–1999) said by 1999 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Allah is the only source of happiness, joy, peace and tranquility. We can only be happy and at peace if Allah so desires. Yet if Allah so desires we can also delight in good things. But it is impossible for us to attain that by any other means than faith in Allah.”
Adnan Oktar (born 1956) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Don’t Look Far For The Reason For Unhappiness: The Cause Is Hearts Turning Aside From Allah" in BLITZ (18 January 2015).
“But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.”
James, son of Zebedee (1–44) said by 44 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have been keeping the peace in the Asia-Pacific theater for decades now, and the essence of the rebalance is to keep that peace and stability going, of which we have been a pivotal part. You ask about India, yes it is difficult. We are two technical and military cultures that grew up on opposite sides of the fence during the Cold War.”
Ash Carter (1954–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We’re interested in the peace but we understand that peace, justice and development go hand in hand. And I think we sent that message very strongly.”
Jim Yong Kim (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was present when it was laid. I don't think I was actually involved in it. I was there because I wanted to see a fitting memorial to everyone who has died in every terrorist incident everywhere because we have to end it. You cannot pursue peace by a cycle of violence. The only way you pursue peace is a cycle of dialogue.”
Jeremy Corbyn (born 1949) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Jeremy Corbyn 'wreath laying' attacked by Israeli PM, BBC News (14 August 2018).
“You have to understand that people have to pay the price for peace. If you dare to struggle, you dare to win. If you dare not to struggle then god damn it, you don’t deserve to win. Let me say peace to you, if you’re willing to fight for it.”
Fred Hampton (1948–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Excerpt from The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971).
“The aim of life is to attain peace. No one can give us peace. We can't buy or borrow it. We have to cultivate it by practicing yama and niyama (yoga restraints and observances).”
Baba Hari Dass (1923–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source