quotations about peace
We're trying to sell peace, like a product, you know, and sell it like people sell soap or soft drinks. And it's the only way to get people aware that peace is possible, and it isn't just inevitable to have violence. Not just war -- all forms of violence. People just accept it ... [but] We're all responsible for everything that goes on, you know, we're all responsible for Biafra and Hitler and everything. So we're just saying "SELL PEACE" -- anybody interested in peace just stick it in the window. It's simple but it lets somebody else know that you want peace too, because you feel alone if you're the only one thinking "wouldn't it be nice if there was peace and nobody was getting killed." So advertise yourself that you're for peace if you believe in it.
JOHN LENNON
The David Frost Show, June 14, 1969
Peace will come
With tranquillity and splendor on the wheels of fire
But will bring us no reward when her false idols fall
And cruel death surrenders with its pale ghost retreating
Between the King and the Queen of Swords
BOB DYLAN
"Changing of the Guards"
Short of changing human nature ... the only way to achieve a practical, livable peace in a world of competing nations is to take the profit out of war.
RICHARD NIXON
Real Peace
God, give us Peace! not such as lulls to sleep,
But sword on thigh and brow with purpose knit!
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
The Washers of the Shroud
Peace is much more than the absence of war. It is like an oak tree. An acorn falls to the ground, sprouts, grows. In the beginning it is a fragile thing, easily destroyed by the boot of a careless woodsman. But nurtured by soil, water, and wind, it begins to grow. Eventually it attains the size and strength to withstand a mighty storm. When an oak tree ceases to grow, it has begun to die. So it is with peace.
DEWITT MORGAN
The Rotarian, September 1975
An army in peace is like an overcoat in July--not useful, but not to be thrown away.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
Peace is not in itself a dream, but we know it only as the result of a momentary equilibrium--an accident.
HENRI-FREDERIC AMIEL
Journal Intime
All we are saying is give peace a chance!
JOHN LENNON
"Give Peace a Chance"
The only way to create permanent peace is to convince the peoples of all nations that there is a better way than war to settle national differences. Obviously, this conviction cannot be engendered in a day, a month, or a decade.
DEWITT MORGAN
The Rotarian, September 1975
Absolute peace in our world is an unattainable goal. But it is one towards which we must continue to journey, our eyes fixed on it as a traveller in a desert fixes his eyes on the one guiding star that will lead him to salvation.
AUNG SAN SUU KYI
Nobel Lecture, June 16, 2012
True peace is a comical concept; a sound of music world where everyone can dance and sing about snowflakes.
WILLIAM P. SINGLEY
"The Enigma of Peace", The Good Men Project, March 15, 2016
Peace is the beginning of justice, not the end.
MORTON DEUTSCH
The Handbook of Conflict Resolution
Peace is not an emotion and neither is it a gut feeling. We can have peace in gladness and even in mourning because the peace of God is not dependent upon our emotions and feelings. God brings forth peace as a manifestation of his indwelling in us. That's why so many people who live apart from Christ do not have peace, because true peace only comes by knowing Him.
PATRICK MABILOG
"Jesus promises peace, but why can't I feel it?", Christian Today, April 6, 2016
True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
attributed, Let the Trumpet Sound: A Life of Martin Luther King, Jr
If we are not happy, if we are not peaceful, we cannot share peace and happiness with others, even those we love, those who live under the same roof. If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile and blossom like a flower, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace.
THICH NHAT HANH
Being Peace
The belief that peace is desirable is rarely enough to achieve it. Peace requires responsibility. Peace entails sacrifice.
BARACK OBAMA
Nobel Lecture, December 10, 2009
Jesus this song you wrote
The words are sticking in my throat
Peace on Earth
Hear it every Christmas time
But hope and history won't rhyme
So what's it worth?
This peace on Earth
U2
"Peace on Earth"
If we are to reach real peace in this world and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with children; and if they will grow up in their natural innocence, we won't have to struggle, we won't have to pass fruitless idle resolutions. But we shall go from love to love and peace to peace, until at last all the corners of the world are covered with that peace and love for which, consciously or unconsciously, the whole world is hungering.
MAHATMA GANDHI
Young India, November 19, 1931
The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.
GEORGE W. BUSH
2nd Inaugural Address, January 20, 2005
Mankind must remember that peace is not God's gift to his creatures, it is our gift to each other.
ELIE WIESEL
Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1986