Violence of the tongue is very real-sharper than any knife.
—Mother Teresa (1910–97) Roman Catholic Missionary, Nun
The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate… Returning violence for violence multiples violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Can you understand why the Congress, most states and most cities refuse to pass legislation requiring the registration and licensing of any and all guns? For the life of me, I can’t. We must register our cars and be licensed to drive. In many places we must get licenses for dogs and even bicycles. Being required to register firearms and show the competence and capacity to handle them hardly seems unreasonable, hardly seems an infringement of freedom. What is it that blocks such legislation? Why do they block it? How are they able to block it?
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
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
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
Vehemence without feeling is but rant.
—George Henry Lewes (1817–78) English Philosopher, Literary Critic, Art Critic
Opinions founded on prejudice are always sustained with the greatest violence.
—Hebrew Proverb
Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence. Any man who has once proclaimed violence as his method is inevitably forced to take the lie as his principle.
—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian Dissident Novelist
Birth is violent, whether it be the birth of a child or the birth of an idea.
—Marianne Williamson (b.1952) American Activist, Author, Lecturer
The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
If you injure your neighbor, better not do it by halves.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Perhaps I am still very much of an American. That is to say, naive, optimistic, gullible. In the eyes of a European, what am I but an American to the core, an American who exposes his Americanism like a sore. Like it or not, I am a product of this land of plenty, a believer in superabundance, a believer in miracles.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Nothing violent, oft have I heard tell, can be permanent.
—Christopher Marlowe (1564–93) English Playwright, Poet, Translator
I first learned the concepts of non-violence in my marriage.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
No violent extreme endures.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
Non-violence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be inseparable part of our very being.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Non violence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence.
—Unknown
Only a philosophy of eternity, in the world today, could justify non-violence.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
When violence comes into the house, law and justice leave through the chimney.
—Turkish Proverb
Violence is unnecessary and costly. Peace is the only way.
—Julius Nyerere (1922–99) Tanzanian Statesman
All breathing, existing, living, sentient creatures should not be slain nor treated with violence, nor abused, nor tormented, nor driven away. This is the pure unchangeable law.
—Buddhist Teaching
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
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
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
Nonviolence is a flop. The only bigger flop is violence.
—Joan Baez (b.1941) American Singer, Songwriter, Musician
Violent delights have violent ends, and in their triumph die; like fire and powder, which, as they kiss, consume.—They are as sick that surfeit with too much, as they that starve with nothing.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Democracy don’t rule the world, you better get that in your head. This world is ruled by violence, but I guess that’s better left unsaid.
—Bob Dylan (b.1941) American Singer-songwriter
Nonviolence is fine as long as it works.
—Malcolm X (1925–65) American Civil Rights Leader