Quotes from Mark Shepard

Nonviolent action, on the other hand, requires more patience because the action is less thrilling.

Other negative side-effects of violence come into view once the struggle comes to an end. For instance, violence generally leaves the two sides as long-standing enemies. Maybe the most amazing thing about Gandhi's nonviolent revolution is, not that the British left, but that they left as friends, and that Britain and India became partners in the British Commonwealth.

Already legal and political moves are being made to drain the Great Lakes as a water supply for a thirsty western region.

What is needed are ecosystems that are designed to produce our food, fuel, animal feed, medicine and fibers, and ecosystems that can do so without the use of fossil fuel technology, those that can tolerate extremes of weather and potentially changing climates, and that can thrive without supplemental irrigation from vulnerable and increasingly expensive public utilities.

If exponents of armed struggle were less concerned with proving their manliness and more concerned with the welfare of the people they claim to stand up for, they might discover that nonviolent forms of struggle, everything considered, work better.

Gandhi saw that the power of any tyrant depends entirely on people being willing to obey.

I must warn you against the impression that mine is the final word on nonviolence. All I claim is that every experiment of mine has deepened my faith in nonviolence as the greatest force at the disposal of mankind.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi

Gandhi's most decisive influence on his opponents was more indirect than direct.

Gandhi saw that the power of any tyrant depends entirely on people being willing to obey. The tyrant may get people to obey by threatening to throw them in prison, or by holding guns to their heads. But the power still resides in the obedience, not in the prison or the guns.

Satyagraha was instead an instrument of unity.

Maybe the most amazing thing about Gandhi's nonviolent revolution is, not that the British left, but that they left as friends, and that Britain and India became partners in the British Commonwealth.

When Satyagraha worked, both sides won.

All my actions have their source in my inalienable love of humankind.

Gandhi was not talking about defeating or overthrowing anyone. Satyagraha—Gandhi's nonviolent action—was not a way for one group to seize what it wanted from another. It was not a weapon of class struggle, or of any other kind of division. Satyagraha was instead an instrument of unity. It was a way to remove injustice and restore social harmony, to the benefit of both sides.

you look closely at so-called popular liberation movements, you'll find that they're seldom started by the peasants or workers they're supposed to benefit. These armed struggles may gradually build wider support—but in almost every case, they're launched by students or other intellectuals in the name of the people.

People try nonviolence for a week, and when it 'doesn't work,' they go back to violence, which hasn't worked for centuries.

Gandhi noted also that violent revolutions almost always end in repressive dictatorships. Once the rebel troops gain control, they naturally keep acting as they're used to—in other words, they start running the country like a military camp.

Satyagraha—Gandhi's nonviolent action—was not a way for one group to seize what it wanted from another. It was not a weapon of class struggle, or of any other kind of division. Satyagraha was instead an instrument of unity. It was a way to remove injustice and restore social harmony, to the benefit of both sides.

Gandhi believed that the means of struggle a people used would shape the society that grew out of the struggle.

Salvation will not come from the legislators. Salvation will not come from the military. If there is any salvation, it will come from the people. Jayaprakash Narayan

Former petroleum industry analyst Jan Lundberg puts it this way, "The nation and most of the rest of the world is chasing a technofix instead of adjusting to ecological/economic reality.

Gandhi called his overall method of nonviolent action Satyagraha. This translates roughly as "Truth-force.

Plants removing carbon from the air is, in fact, how the earth's vast coal deposits were formed.