Top 100 Peace Quotes of All Time

A short, finished list rather than an endless feed: 100 of the best peace quotes ever written, picked out of the full peace archive on QuoteForever. You will find Dwight D. Eisenhower, Dalai Lama, Eleanor Roosevelt and Isabel Allende among them.

Read the list top to bottom, or use it as a starting point - every author name links to everything else they said, and every quote has its own page you can share or turn into an image.

1

What is to give light must endure burning.

2

Life is painful. It has thorns, like the stem of a rose. Culture and art are the roses that bloom on the stem. The flower is yourself, your humanity. Art is the liberation of the humanity inside yourself.

3

Music doesn't lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music.

4

I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one's head pointed toward the sun, one's feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.

5

Restlessness and impatience change nothing except our peace and joy. Peace does not dwell in outward things, but in the heart prepared to wait trustfully and quietly on Him who has all things safely in His hands.

6

How can one not speak about war, poverty, and inequality when people who suffer from these afflictions don't have a voice to speak?

7

Peace is more important than all justice; and peace was not made for the sake of justice, but justice for the sake of peace.

8

Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come.

9

People in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than governments.

10

We work on ourselves in order to help others, but also we help others in order to work on ourselves.

Peace is its own reward. - Mahatma Gandhi 11

Peace is its own reward.

12

We live in an era where masses of people come and go across a hostile planet, desolate and violent. Refugees, emigrants, exiles, deportees. We are a tragic contingent.

13

Peace we want because there is another war to fight against poverty, disease and ignorance.

14

Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.

15

The art of Peace I practice has room for each of the world's eight million gods, and I cooperate with them all. The God of Peace is very great and enjoins all that is divine and enlightened in every land.

16

Ask for peace first, and you will clearly see your next step.

17

We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.

18

A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.

19

What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world.

20

Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity of atrocities War. He is the only one that gathers his brethren about him and goes forth in cold blood and calm pulse to exterminate his kind. He is the only animal that for sordid wages will march out... and help to slaughter strangers of his own species who have done him no harm and with whom he has no quarrel.... And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands and works for the universal brotherhood of man with his mouth.

21

Very few people chose war. They chose selfishness and the result was war. Each of us, individually and nationally, must choose: total love or total war.

22

A good end cannot sanctify evil means; nor must we ever do evil that good may come of it. We are too ready to retaliate, rather than forgive, or gain by love and information. And yet we could hurt no man that we believe loves us. Let us, then, try what love will do: for if men do once see that we love them, we should soon find they would not harm us. Force may subdue, but love gains; and he that forgives first, wins the laurel.

23

The ideal weapons system is built in 435 congressional districts and it doesn't matter whether it works or not.

24

Freedom from desire leads to inner peace.

25

God is on everyone's side... and in the last analysis, he is on the side with plenty of money and large armies.

26

I do not pray for success, I ask for faithfulness.

27

The pens which write against disarmament are made with the same steel from which guns are made.

28

It belongs to the very substance of nonviolence never to destroy or damage another person's feeling of self worth, even an opponent's. We all need, constantly, an advance of trust and affirmation.

You measure a government by how few people need help. - Patricia Schroeder 29

You measure a government by how few people need help.

30

World peace can blossom throughout the length and breadth of the world only when the world-peace-dreamers, world-peace-lovers and world-peace-servers desperately, sleeplessly and breathlessly long for the full manifestation of peace here on earth.

31

May all people here find inspiration and strength to build a future of reconciliation, justice and peace for all the children of this beloved land.

32

Don't live worried, frustrated or upset because of what somebody did or what didn't work out. Come back to a place of peace. It's not going to work against you; it's going to work for you.

33

Like the Sweetness of Gardenias Mother, you died 15 years ago. pain, a rapier, cut until, finally, there was just peace like the sweetness of gardenias in the crystal vase on your yellow kitchen table. so fragrant. your voice lingers in my ear reminding, scolding, guiding a pleasant mantra of tenderness, magic words that move my palms, your palms. together we are molding, helping, creating. in the mirror I see your eyes, your beautiful brown circles looking back, so radiant. "don't forget me," you whispered the day you died. I won't.

34

The same hot lightning that burns your blood with passion–– cools your fears with peace.

35

The strongest bond of human sympathy outside the family relation should be one uniting working people of all nations and tongues and kindreds.

36

To give victory to the right, not bloody bullets, but peaceful ballots only, are necessary.

37

I have to say that elections, even in the most peaceful region, always make the hardest time for regional state institutions, including security structures.

38

Let's grease the wheel over tea, let's discuss things in confidence. Let's be outspoken, let's be ridiculous, let's solve the world's problems.

39

We must begin to inculcate our children against militarism by educating them in the spirit of pacifism. Our schoolbooks glorify war and conceal it's horror. I would teach peace rather than war.

40

WAR, n. A by-product of the arts of peace. The most menacing political condition is a period of international amity.

41

Peace is not merely the absence of warfare, any more than true health is simply the absence of disease. Nor is peace simply a quiet state of equilibrium-impossible to achieve in an evolving system. Though refraining from harm is an essential first step, lasting peace is created by actively redressing harm done. Peace is a creative process of actively joining I and thou into a co-creative we. It requires authentic communication, empathic listening, and wildly creative solutions.

42

We extend our hand towards peace. Our people are committed to peace. We know that peace entails painful compromise for both sides.

43

I assure you, it would be much more pleasant for me to be an ordinary voter in peaceful Chechnya than the president of a republic at war.

44

My attitude to peace is rather based on the Burmese definition of peace - it really means removing all the negative factors that destroy peace in this world. So peace does not mean just putting an end to violence or to war, but to all other factors that threaten peace, such as discrimination, such as inequality, poverty.

45

Peacemakers not only live, they rule life.

46

Lord Salisbury and myself have brought you back peace--but a peace I hope with honour.

47

If one takes a public stand against, say, most any sin you can think of, one is considered "courageous" and a "defender of the faith." Folks will quickly applaud you and tell you how much they admire you for "taking a stand" on biblical truth. Except if you quote Matt. 5:44 and invite people to apply it in any sort of meaningful, literal way. The moment one begins to talk about loving your enemies they all of a sudden become "liberals," "extremists," or are accused of completely taking an otherwise straight forward passage "out of context.

48

Peace is purchased from strength. It's not purchased from weakness or unilateral retreats.

49

What is the use of physicians like myself trying to help parents to bring up children healthy and happy, to have them killed in such numbers for a cause that is ignoble?

50

Remember your humanity, and forget the rest.

51

All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.

52

...how many times must the cannon balls fly Before they're forever banned?

53

My experience is the opposite.

54

War is one of the scourges with which it has pleased God to afflict men.

55

War is not merely a political act but a real political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse, a carrying out of the same by other means.

56

I sincerely want peace, not because I lack resources for war, but because I hate bloodshed.

57

I have already given two cousins to the war and I stand ready to sacrifice my wife's brother.

58

In a time of war, truth is always replaced by propaganda.

59

We...are not really free if we can't control our own government and its policies. And we will never do that if we remain ignorant.

60

Walker's Law: There are few things made harder in this world by having money.

61

At the end, the realization is that she had to get to a place in her life where she could drop her guard and make peace with the fact that whether she had a small amount of time, that she had to kind of live it completely through, instead of living by the rules.

62

In war, we always deform ourselves, our essence.

63

Blessed be God that Thou hast filled the soul of Thy servant with joy and peace in believing.

64

You can legislate many conditions-but you cannot legislate harmony into the hearts of men. To attain industrial peace, we need more than by-laws and compulsory rules.

65

But Portugal has a peaceful feel about it. I sit on the terrace overlooking the vineyard there and I feel cut off from the world. You need that sort of thing.

66

The failure of love, that's what all laws are really.

67

...We have an historic opportunity for a great global healing and renewal. If we will accept the challenge of nonviolent activism with faith, courage, and determination, we can bring this great vision of a world united in peace and harmony from a distant ideal into glowing reality.

68

How many must die before we can really have a free and true and peaceful society?

69

I can love the whole world except my neighbor.

70

Peace of mind is the basis of a healthy body and a healthy mind; so peace of mind, a calm mind, is very, very important.

71

Today, the world is so small and so interdependent that the concept of war has become anachronistic, an outmoded approach. As a rule, we always talk about reform and changes. Among the old traditions, there are many aspects that are either ill-suited to our present reality or are counterproductive due to their shortsightedness. These, we have consigned to the dustbin of history. War too should be relegated to the dustbin of history.

72

I am a steadfast follower of the doctrine of non-violence which was first preached by Lord Buddha, whose divine wisdom is absolute.

73

It is a question of our own peace and mental stability.

74

The peace dividend is peace.

75

War is the most extraordinary, extreme human experience.

76

Our apologies, good friends, for the fracture of good order, the burning of paper instead of children. How many must die before our voices are heard, how many must be tortured, dislocated, starved, maddened? When, at what point, will you say no to this war?

77

One is called to live nonviolently, even if the change one works for seems impossible.

78

The only place I've found peace in my life is in church. I owe my life to God.

79

War creates peace like hate creates love.

80

Peace is a civil right which makes other human rights possible. Peace is a precondition for our existence. Peace permits our continued existence.

81

The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.

82

Blank cartridges should never be used against a mob, nor should a volley be fired over the heads of the mob even if there is little danger of hurting persons in the rear. Such things will be regarded as an admission of weakness, or an attempt to bluff, and may do more harm than good.

83

Military power serves the cause of security by making prohibitive the cost of any aggressive attack. It serves the cause of peace by holding up a shield behind which the patient constructive work of peace can go on.

84

Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose.

85

We look upon this shaken earth, and we declare our firm and fixed purpose - the building of a peace with justice in a world where moral law prevails.

86

The day will come when the people will make so insistent their demand that there be peace in the world that the Governments will get out of the way and let them have peace.

87

You can't have this kind of war. There just aren't enough bulldozers to scrape the bodies off the streets.

88

Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative.

89

Their quarrel was no more surprising than are most quarrels — inevitable at the time, incredible afterwards.

90

Words were never invented to fully explain the peaceful aura that surrounds us when we are in communion with minds of the same thoughts.

91

It was a Roman who said it was sweet to die for one's country. The Greeks never said it was sweet to die for anything. They had no vital lies.

92

There is a boundary to men's passions when they act from feelings; but none when they are under the influence of imagination.

93

Our “neoconservatives” are neither new nor conservative, but old as Babylon and evil as Hell.

94

We lose the peace of years when we hunt after the rapture of moments.

95

Seek and find the freedom of the spirit, for where there is true freedom, there is peace, and where there is peace, there is love,and it is love that unlocks all doors.

96

I AM your anchor. I AM your haven. Let My Peace and Love infill and enfold you.

97

All the gods are dead except the god of war.

98

If we want a free and peaceful world, if we want to make the deserts bloom and man grow to greater dignity as a human being - we can do it.

99

This is a time for action — not for war, but for mobilization of every bit of peace machinery.

100

I kept praying that I might be able to prevent a repetition of this stupidity called war. I have tried to keep the promise I made to myself, but the progress that the world is making toward peace seems like the crawling of a little child, very halting and slow.

More Peace quotes

This is the short list. The full peace quotes collection holds every quote on the subject in the archive, and the picture quotes are ready to share as images.

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