It is the failing of youth not to be able to restrain its own violence.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Violence among young people is an aspect of their desire to create. They don’t know how to use their energy creatively so they do the opposite and destroy.
—Anthony Burgess (1917–93) English Novelist, Critic, Composer
Nonviolence is a flop. The only bigger flop is violence.
—Joan Baez (b.1941) American Singer, Songwriter, Activist
I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
There are situations in life to which the only satisfactory response is a physically violent one. If you don’t make that response, you continually relive the unresolved situation over and over in your life.
—Russell Hoban (1925–2011) American Novelist, Children’s Writer
Nonviolence is the supreme law of life.
—Indian Proverb
It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to coyer impotence.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Under all conditions, well-organized violence seems to him the shortest distance between two points.
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Russian Marxist Revolutionary
The use of violence as an instrument of persuasion is therefore inviting and seems to the discontented to be the only effective protest.
—William O. Douglas (1898–1980) American Jurist, Longest-serving Supreme Court Justice
Violence ever defeats its own ends. Where you cannot drive you can always persuade. A gentle word, a kind look, a god-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles. There is a secret pride in every human heart than revolts at tyranny. You may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
The more dubious and uncertain an instrument violence has become in international relations, the more it has gained in reputation and appeal in domestic affairs, specifically in the matter of revolution.
—Hannah Arendt (1906–75) German-American Philosopher, Political Theorist
No violent extreme endures.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
Only a philosophy of eternity, in the world today, could justify non-violence.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Novelist
Rambo isn’t violent. I see Rambo as a philanthropist.
—Sylvester Stallone (b.1946) American Actor, Screenwriter, Director
There is a violence that liberates, and a violence that enslaves; there is a violence that is moral and a violence that is immoral.
—Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) Italian Head of State, Politician
The question is no longer between violence and non-violence; it is between non-violence and non-existence.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Violence is not merely killing another. It is violence when we use a sharp word, when we make a gesture to brush away a person, when we obey because there is fear. So violence isn’t merely organized butchery in the name of God, in the name of society or country. Violence is much more subtle, much deeper, and we are inquiring into the very depths of violence.
—Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) Indian Philosopher
The violence done us by others is often less painful than that which we do to ourselves.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
I do believe that, where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence….I would rather have India resort to arms in order to defend her honour than that she should, in a cowardly manner, become or remain a helpless witness to her own dishonour. But I believe that nonviolence is infinitely superior to violence, forgiveness is more manly than punishment. Forgiveness adorns a soldier…But abstinence is forgiveness only when there is the power to punish; it is meaningless when it pretends to proceed from a helpless creature….But I do not believe India to be helpless….I do not believe myself to be a helpless creature….Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
I first learned the concepts of non-violence in my marriage.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Love is stronger than violence.
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) German-born Swiss Novelist, Poet
In America all too few blows are struck into flesh. We kill the spirit here, we are experts at that. We use psychic bullets and kill each other cell by cell.
—Norman Mailer (1923–2007) American Novelist Essayist
If you strike a child, take care that you strike it in anger, even at the risk of maiming it for life. A blow in cold blood neither can nor should be forgiven.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
We are supposed to be the children of Seth; but Seth is too much of an effete nonentity to deserve ancestral regard. No, we are the sons of Cain, and with violence can be associated the attacks on sound, stone, wood and metal that produced civilization.
—Anthony Burgess (1917–93) English Novelist, Critic, Composer
A society that presumes a norm of violence and celebrates aggression, whether in the subway, on the football field, or in the conduct of its business, cannot help making celebrities of the people who would destroy it.
—Lewis H. Lapham (1935–2024) American Journalist, Author, Long-time Editor of Harper’s Magazine
Much violence is based on the illusion that life is a property to be defended and not to be shared.
—Henri Nouwen (1932–96) Dutch Catholic Theologian, Writer
Greatness is not achieved with violence.
—African Proverb
Who has power in his hands has no need to lie; he uses violence.
—Turkish Proverb
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Power and violence are opposites; where the one rules absolutely, the other is absent. Violence appears where power is in jeopardy, but left to its own course it ends in power’s disappearance.
—Hannah Arendt (1906–75) German-American Philosopher, Political Theorist
Leave a Reply