Quotes About Pacifism

Shaolin was the first known Buddhist monastery to develop its own fighting system—quite unusual for a religion whose pacifism rivals that of the Quakers.

Fred Rogers richly deserves a place in the pantheon of pacifists who tried to shake the foundations of society and culture. To the day of his death, he was a radical Christian pacifist—fervently committed to the end of violence and the presence of social justice in its full glory. The time has come for us to pull him out of the shadows so we can celebrate him just as he was—a fierce peacemaker.

There is nothing in the world more harmful than war and more foolish than armament

There was evidently a party of outright pacifists in the church. In 1054, another council declared: "A Christian who slays another Christian sheds the blood of Christ." But pacifism presented too many problems in a wicked world. Gregory VII often quoted with approval Jeremiah: "Cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood." Before long, the church itself was the instigator of political wars, and its enemies were those who cried for peace.

Because most of us recognize that we will fight to protect our children, we cannot be absolute pacifists.

Hidden in my desire to become a naval aviator was something more complex: a personal engagement with the problem of violence that expressed itself at first in military fantasies and then, over a period of many years, resolved itself in the pacifism I aspire to today.