Pacifism Quotes

“There are perhaps many causes worth dying for, but to me, certainly, there are none worth killing for.”
― Albert Dietrich, Army GI, Pacifist CO: The World War II Letters of Frank Dietrich and Albert Dietrich

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”
― G.K. Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World

“Sometimes you have to pick the gun up to put the Gun down.”
― Malcom X

“No one won the last war, and no one will win the next war.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt, The Wisdom Of Eleanor Roosevelt

“Fighting for peace, is like f***ing for chastity”
― Stephen King, Hearts in Atlantis

“There are many causes I would die for. There is not a single cause I would kill for.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

“Pacifism is objectively pro-fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side, you automatically help out that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, 'he that is not with me is against me'.”
― George Orwell

“The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labour. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“Say what you want but you NEVER say it with violence!”
― Gerard Way

“Those who attempt to conquer hatred by hatred are like warriors who take weapons to overcome others who bear arms. This does not end hatred, but gives it room to grow. But, ancient wisdom has advocated a different timeless strategy to overcome hatred. This eternal wisdom is to meet hatred with non-hatred. The method of trying to conquer hatred through hatred never succeeds in overcoming hatred. But, the method of overcoming hatred through non-hatred is eternally effective. That is why that method is described as eternal wisdom. ”
― Siddhārtha Gautama

“The majority of pacifists either belong to obscure religious sects or are simply humanitarians who object to taking life and prefer not to follow their thoughts beyond that point. But there is a minority of intellectual pacifists, whose real though unacknowledged motive appears to be hatred of western democracy and admiration for totalitarianism. Pacifist propaganda usually boils down to saying that one side is as bad as the other, but if one looks closely at the writing of the younger intellectual pacifists, one finds that they do not by any means express impartial disapproval but are directed almost entirely against Britain and the United States …”
― George Orwell

“Wise men are not pacifists; they are merely less likely to jump up and retaliate against their antagonizers. They know that needless antagonizers are virtually already insecure enough.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“They have the guns, we have the poets. Therefore, we will win.”
― Howard Zinn

“Please be peaceful. We believe in law and order. We are not advocating violence, I want you to love your enemies... for what we are doing is right, what we are doing is just -- and God is with us.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“And do you know another thing, Arthur? Life is too bitter already, without territories and wars and noble feuds.”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

“Despotic governments can stand 'moral force' till the cows come home; what they fear is physical force.”
― George Orwell

“Jesus was a pacifist.”
― Chris Hedges

“Love does not imply pacifism.”
― Derrick Jensen, Endgame, Vol. 1: The Problem of Civilization

“It's not that he's choosing me, a girl he met less than a month ago--he's choosing a world in which no one has to die.”
― Amie Kaufman, This Shattered World

“Glass & peace alike betray proof of fragility under repeated blows.”
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

“Magistrate: What do you propose to do then, pray?

Lysistrata: You ask me that! Why, we propose to administer the treasury ourselves

Magistrate: You do?

Lysistrata: What is there in that a surprise to you? Do we not administer the budget of household expenses?

Magistrate: But that is not the same thing.

Lysistrata: How so – not the same thing?

Magistrate: It is the treasury supplies the expenses of the War.

Lysistrata: That's our first principle – no War!”
― Aristophanes, Lysistrata

“There has never been a time in my life when I felt that I could take a gun and shoot down a fellow-being. In this respect I am a Quaker.”
― Dwight L Moody

“Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
 all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.”
― Julia Ward Howe

“The result of this is that so-called peace propaganda is just as dishonest and intellectually disgusting as war propaganda. Like war propaganda, it concentrates on putting forward a ‘case’, obscuring the opponent’s point of view and avoiding awkward questions.”
― George Orwell

“Pacifism is a virtue indisguishable from cowardice.”
― Brent Weeks, The Blinding Knife

“Unfortunately, that still leaves plenty of Americans who don't read much or think much -- who will still be extremely useful in unjust wars. We are sick about that. We did the best we could. ”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons

“It was strange to us that none of these three victims made any attempt to resist the attack. Indeed, not one inhabitant in any of these worlds considered for a moment the possibility of resistance. In every case the attitude to disaster seemed to express itself in such terms as these:
"To retaliate would be to wound our communal spirit beyond cure. We choose rather to die. The theme of spirit that we have created must inevitably be broken short, whether by the ruthlessness of the invader or by our own resort to arms. It is better to be destroyed than to triumph in slaying the spirit. Such as it is, the spirit that we have achieved is fair; and it is indestructibly woven into the tissue of the cosmos. We die praising the universe in which at least such an achievement as ours can be. We die knowing that the promise of further glory outlives us in other galaxies. We die praising the Star Maker, the Star Destroyer.”
― Olaf Stapledon, Star Maker

“In so far as it takes effect at all, pacifist propaganda can only be effective against those countries where a certain amount of freedom of speech is still permitted; in other words it is helpful to totalitarianism.”
― George Orwell

“Surely there is nothing so ungracious, nor nothing so cruel, but men will hold therewith, if it be once approved by custom.”
― Desiderius Erasmus, Against War

“DESEGREGATE THE BUSES WITH THIS 7 POINT PROGRAM:

1. Pray for guidance.
2. Be courteous and friendly.
3. Be neat and clean.
4. Avoid loud talk.
5. Do not argue.
6. Report incidents immediately.
7. Overcome evil with good.
Sponsored by Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance
Rev. A. L. Davis, Pres.
Rev. J. E. Poindexter, Secretary”
― John Howard Griffin, Black Like Me