Quotes About Nonviolence

We must, I believe, start teaching our children the sanity of nonviolence much earlier.

That is someone who follows the teachings of the nonviolent Jesus and takes the gospel personally, and then pays the price. I fall into that category.

The purpose of our existence is not to kill each other. Neither is it to encourage or manipulate circumstances that would result in such acts.

am persuaded that theology and spirituality are fundamentally one. The more we know about God, the more our lives change. In these articles and sermons, I try to show some practical implications of Christian doctrine. In section five, "The Way of Nonviolence," I have brought together articles that center around the theme of

What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness, but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black.

Ahimsa is a science. The word 'failure' has no place in the vocabulary of science.

Satyagraha as conceived by me is a science in the making.

Let us not use bombs and guns to overcome the world. Let us use love and compassion. Peace begins with a smile.

True ahimsa should wear a smile even on a deathbed brought about by an assailant. It is only with that ahimsa that we can befriend our opponents and win their love.

To believe the promise of Jesus that his followers shall possess the earth, and at the same time to face our enemies unarmed and defenseless, preferring to incur injustice rather than to do wrong ourselves, is indeed a narrow way.

If I'd never found any other reason to advocate pacifism, this would be it; it is so much easier on the nerves not to perpetually be circling your fellow man, hand warily on the hilt of your knife.

The only moral lesson which is suited for a child--the most important lesson for every time of life--is this: 'Never hurt anybody.

Only when we have become nonviolent towards all life will we have learned to live well with others.

I believe that hope for the future depends on each of us taking nonviolence into our hearts and minds and developing new and imaginative structures which are nonviolent and life-giving for all.

If there is one thing fundamental to the life of the spirit it is the absence of force.

I must say, at this juncture, that I don't like fighting. I prefer passive resistance and, if that doesn't work, active fleeing.

I think the really significant part of it for us, for the western world, is we have a lot to gain from the Tibetans - there are certain lessons that are within Tibetan culture. I mean understandings of compassion and of nonviolence that are things that we really lack in our society.

I would, therefore, say that for no reason whatsoever, except in self-defence, should one think of killing any animal.

I believe in preventing cruelty to all living beings in any form.

One of the principles of nonviolence is that you leave your opponents whole and better off than you found them.

We can't go all over the world killing people because we disagree with them.

violence exercised in self-defense, which all societies from the most primitive to the most cultured and civilized, accept as moral and legal. The principle of self-defense, even involving weapons and bloodshed, has never been condemned, even by Gandhi, who sanctioned it for those unable to master pure nonviolence.

God does not punish people for being nonpacifists; war alone is punishment enough.

They formed what they called the "wall of peace.