Violence commands both literature and life, and violence is always crude and distorted.
—Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945) American Novelist
Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
The cause of violence is not ignorance. It is self-interest. Only reverance can restrain violence – reverance for human life and the environment.
—William Sloane Coffin (1924–2006) American Presbyterian Clergyman, Peace 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
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
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
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
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
Love is stronger than violence.
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) German-born Swiss Novelist, Poet
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
Nonviolence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being.
—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
Violence is unnecessary and costly. Peace is the only way.
—Julius Nyerere (1922–99) Tanzanian Statesman
Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
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
Rambo isn’t violent. I see Rambo as a philanthropist.
—Sylvester Stallone (b.1946) American Actor, Film Director, Screenwriter
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
Freedom is poetry, taking liberties with words, breaking the rules of normal speech, violating common sense. Freedom is violence.
—Norman O. Brown (1913–2002) American Philosopher
Perhaps violence, like pornography, is some kind of an evolutionary standby system, a last-resort device for throwing a wild joker into the game?
—J. G. Ballard (1930–2009) English Novelist, Short Story Writer
Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.
—Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish Writer
Nonviolence is fine as long as it works.
—Malcolm X (1925–65) American Civil Rights Leader
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
Under all conditions, well-organized violence seems to him the shortest distance between two points.
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Russian Marxist Revolutionary
Violence is good for those who have nothing to lose.
—Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–80) French Philosopher, Playwright, Novelist, Screenwriter, Political Activist
Vehemence without feeling is but rant.
—George Henry Lewes (1817–78) English Philosopher, Literary Critic, Art Critic
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
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 Judge