Quotes About Nonviolence

The British, he (Gandhi) said, want us to put the struggle on the plane of machine-guns where they have the weapons and we do not. Our only assurance of beating them is putting the struggle on a plane where we have the weapons and they do not.

The greatest conqueror is he who overcomes the enemy without a blow

I guess John Lennon had it right: give peace a chance.

To live without killing is a thought which could electrify the world, if men were only capable of staying awake long enough to let the idea soak in.

Every reform by violence is to be deprecated, because it does little to correct the evil while men remain as they are, and because wisdom has no need of violence.

wisdom needs no violence.

Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if any man take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also,

MY THESIS, in simplest terms, is: Let anyone do anything he pleases, so long as it is peaceful; the role of government, then, is to keep the peace...Keeping the peace means no more than prohibiting persons from unpeaceful actions...When government goes beyond this, that is, when government prohibits peaceful actions, such prohibitions themselves are, prima facie, unpeaceful.

We will not allow any group to use our soil to launch a terror attack against any other country. Bangladesh is no longer an exporter of terrorism, nor is it a silk route for arms smuggling as it once was.

Nevertheless, this one fact should be apparent: turning the other cheek is a bribe. It is a valid form of action for only so long as the Christian is impotent politically or militarily.

If any person raises his hand to strike down another on the ground of religion, I shall fight him till the last breath of my life, both as the head of the government and from the outside

The main thing," she said, "is this: we will refuse to be each other's enemies. We will renounce violence, which is so easy to start but so hard to control. We will build a place where we can all live in peace. If we hold to that, everything is possible.

Get this into your head: if violence were only a thing of the future, if exploitation and oppression never existed on earth, perhaps displays of nonviolence might relieve the conflict. But if the entire regime, even your nonviolent thoughts, is governed by a thousand-year old oppression, your passiveness serves no other purpose but to put you on the side of the oppressors.

We have seen enough of war to know that it doesn't work to resolve conflicts. It only exacerbates them. It is time we find other solutions and dedicate ourselves to life-not death.

The power to stay your hand is far greater than the power to strike with your hand and hinsa has no place in the society.

I've always been strongly on the side of non-violence.

Physical violence was never an option for men or women in my family.

Nonviolence worked in Serbia, and it can work in other countries seeking their freedom.

Live and allow others to live; hurt no one; life is dear to all living beings.

And when it is done, we ought to follow the example by disarming ourselves.

I'm not about trying to be out here fighting and shooting, stabbing and, you know, all that crap, man.

Be bullied, be outraged, be killed, but do not kill.

No, no, no,' said Stephen. 'I deprecate violence. My part is to heal rather than to kill; or at least to kill with kindly intent.

If anybody tried to threaten me I would simply look him in the eye and ask him in a firm but friendly voice, "Why?" The bully would have no choice but to engage me verbally, and this made violence next to impossible. I learned that it is very difficult to fight someone with whom you are already talking.