Quotes & Sayings About Nonviolence

Nonviolence requires more courage than the soldier of war. — Mahatma Gandhi

My modesty has prevented me from declaring from the house top that the message of non-co-operation, nonviolence and swadeshi is a message to the world. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence to be a creed has to be all-pervasive. — Mahatma Gandhi

Before we apply Joshua to our lives, we need to make sure which side of the Jordan we are living on. Militarism invites God's wrath. — Preston Sprinkle

Nonviolence succeeds only when we have a real living faith in God. — Mahatma Gandhi

I'm grateful to God that, through the Negro church, the dimension of nonviolence entered our struggle. — Martin Luther King Jr.

So many people around the world have used nonviolence as a way to resolve a conflict that they faced in their lives. And they continue to use it everywhere all over the world there. And I think, in a way, nonviolence is our nature. Violence is not really our nature. If violence was our nature, we wouldn't need military academies and martial arts institutes to teach us how to kill and destroy people. We ought to have been born with those instincts. But the fact that we have to learn the art of killing means that it's a learned experience. And we can always unlearn it. — Arun Manilal Gandhi

Nonviolence is an unchangeable creed. It has to be pursued even in face of violence raging around you. — Mahatma Gandhi

The Birmingham campaign was a repeat of SCLC's 1961 campaign in Albany, Georgia, which turned out a complete failure. King was banking on being able to fill up the jails and still have recruits willing to engage in civil disobedience, shutting the system down, but the authorities simply made their jails "bottomless" by shipping detainees elsewhere. A couple years later, black residents of Albany rioted, suggesting what they thought about their experience with nonviolence (these riots are not mentioned in most chronologies of the movement). — Anonymous

The Charkha is an outward symbol of truth and nonviolence. — Mahatma Gandhi

Even creative nonviolence can go unnoticed unless participants are attacked. — Mark Kurlansky

To one who reads the spirit of the Gita, it teaches the secret of nonviolence, the secret of realizing self through the physical body. — Mahatma Gandhi

Martin Luther King taught us all nonviolence. I was told to extend nonviolence to the mother and her calf. — Dick Gregory

The only thing that's been a worse flop than the organization of nonviolence has been the organization of violence. — Joan Baez

I just think that if one is going to preach nonviolence and one is going to advocate for nonviolence, one's standard should be consistent. — Ta-Nehisi Coates

Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when it helps us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition. — Martin Luther King Jr.

In the event of a violent revolution, we would be sorely outnumbered. And when it was all over, the Negro would face the same unchanged conditions, the same squalor and deprivation-the only difference being that his bitterness would be even more intense, his disenchantment even more abject. Thus, in purely practical as well as moral terms, the American Negro has no rational alternative to nonviolence. — Martin Luther King Jr.

The principle of always seeking an alternative applies to nonviolence as well. It is this: If nonviolence is to be credible, it must answer the questions that violence purports to answer, but in a better way. — Jim Wallis

It is much more difficult to live for nonviolence than to die for it. — Mahatma Gandhi

Disobedience to be civil has to be open and nonviolent. — Mahatma Gandhi

I think that nonviolence is one way of saying that there are other ways to solve problems, not only through weapons and war. Nonviolence also means the recognition that the person on one side of the trench and the person on the other side of the trench are both human beings, with the same faculties. At some point they have to begin to understand one another. — Rigoberta Menchu

The weapon of nonviolence does not need supermen or superwomen to wield it; even beings of common clay can use it and have used it before this with success. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence is the summit of bravery. — Mahatma Gandhi

When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse. — Ta-Nehisi Coates

To my mind, Swaraj based on nonviolence is the fulfillment of the constructive programme. — Mahatma Gandhi

Truth and nonviolence are perhaps the activest forces you have in the world. — Mahatma Gandhi

And they are torturing Muslims, and their drones are bombing wedding parties (by accident!), and the Dreamers are quoting Martin Luther King and exulting nonviolence for the weak and the biggest guns for the strong. — Ta-Nehisi Coates

essence of nonviolence was a refusal to retaliate against evil, a refusal based on the realization that "the law of retaliation is the law of the multiplication of evil. — David J. Garrow

The emotion of nonviolence was building in him until it became a prejudice like any other thought-stultifying prejudice. To inflict any hurt on anything for any purpose became inimical to him. He became obsessed with this emotion, for such it surely was, until it blotted out any possible thinking in its area. But never was there any hint of cowardice in Adam's army record. Indeed he was commended three times and then decorated for bravery. — John Steinbeck

The essence of nonviolence is love. Out of love and the willingness to act selflessly, strategies, tactics, and techniques for a nonviolent struggle arise naturally. Nonviolence is not a dogma; it is a process. — Nhat Hanh

The most efficient action, the most significant testimony to nonviolence, is living a life in which there is no violence-showing that such a life is possible, and even not more difficult than a life of gain, nor more unpleasant than a life of pleasure, nor less natural than an 'ordinary' life. — Lanza Del Vasto

If peace is what every government says it seeks, and peace is the yearning of every heart, why aren't we studying it and teaching it in schools? — Colman McCarthy

Nonviolence is a method that transforms, first of all, the individual once you understand it and embrace it. It begins with you and, if you can, about transforming individuals so that they love unconditionally. — Coretta Scott King

Without basic human values guiding us, we become morally bankrupt. Without love as our purpose, we become empty. Without understanding of both of these, we become lost. — Dr. Milan LaBrey

The universe is not for man alone, but is a theater of evolution for all living beings. Live and let live is its guiding principle. 'Ahimsa Paramo Dharmah' - Non-injury is the highest religion. — Virchand Gandhi

It is simply my way of saying that I would rather be a man of conviction than a man of conformity. Occasionally in life one develops a conviction so precious and meaningful that he will stand on it till the end. That is what I have found in nonviolence. — Martin Luther King Jr.

Nonviolence is not an easy thing to understand, still less to practice, weak as we are. — Mahatma Gandhi

Veganism is about nonviolence:
nonviolence to other sentient beings;
nonviolence to yourself;
nonviolence to the earth. — Gary L. Francione

Nonviolence is fine as long as it works. — Malcolm X

Nonviolence is the most potent technique for oppressed people. Unearned suffering is redemptive. — Martin Luther King Jr.

The thing about nonviolence is that it spreads. When you get people to participate in nonviolent action - whether it's a fast, a march, a boycott, or a picket line - people hear you, people see you, people are learning from that action. — Dolores Huerta

We must follow nonviolence and love. — Martin Luther King Jr.

Christian nonviolence must be embodied in a community that is an alternative to the world's violence. — Stanley Hauerwas

His headstone said
FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST
But death is a slave's freedom
We seek the freedom of free men
And the construction of a world
Where Martin Luther King could have lived and
preached non-violence — Nikki Giovanni

When I was 16, the guest speaker was King. And I was completely overwhelmed because I had been studying nonviolence, talking about it, reading about it, but here it was happening, here it was people boycotting the buses and people on the streets and taking risks, which I think was the key. — Joan Baez

My life is dedicated to the service of Indians through the religion of nonviolence which I believe to be the root of Hinduism. — Mahatma Gandhi

I believe, with Gandhi, that we need to take an imaginative leap forward toward fresh and generous idealism for the sake of all humanity - that we neeed to renew this ancient wisdom of nonviolence, to strive for a disarmed world, and to create a culture of nonviolence. — Mairead Corrigan

With a few exceptions, the media have phrased the past five months as a contest of wills between Bush and Saddam Hussein, not as a moment of deragement between two armed madmen willing to order their young to slaughter each other. Analysis -endless analysis- has been offered about the two men's tactics, as if they were coaches preparing for the Super Bowl. — Colman McCarthy

We should not be too proud of being vegetarian, for example. We must acknowledge that the water in which we boil our vegetables contain many microorganisms, not to mention the vegetables themselves, But even when we cannot be completely nonviolent, by being vegetarian we are going in the direction of nonviolence....Our effort is only to proceed in that direction. — Thich Nhat Hanh

During the past few years I have avoided tiring myself and losing my breath. I must take care of my body, treat it with respect as a musician does his instrument. I apply nonviolence to my body, for it is not merely a tool to accomplish something. It itself is the end. — Thich Nhat Hanh

We can't win the world with weapons or violence.
We can win the world with love and practice of nonviolence. — Debasish Mridha

Please be peaceful. We believe in law and order. We are not advocating violence, I want you to love your enemies ... for what we are doing is right, what we are doing is just
and God is with us. — Martin Luther King Jr.

I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. — Martin Luther King Jr.

At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love — Martin Luther King Jr.

We cannot be fearful all the time; we have to rise above our fear, whatever is to happen to us, however our conditions may challenge us. To be fearless is a decision that one must make. And this fearlessness becomes the fundamental ground of nonviolence. — Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

Nonviolence is the greatest virtue, cowardice the greatest vice - nonviolence springs from love, cowardice from hate. — Mahatma Gandhi

John Lewis said, You have to be taught the way of peace, the way of love, the way of nonviolence. In the religious sense, in the moral sense, you can say that in the bosom of every human being, there is a spark of the divine. So you don't have a right as a human to abuse that spark of the divine in your fellow human being. From time to time, we would discuss that, if you have someone attacking you, beating you, spitting on you, you have to think of that person. Years ago that person was an innocent child, an innocent little baby. What happened? Did something go wrong? Did someone teach that person to hate, to abuse others? You try to appeal to the goodness of every human being and you don't give up. You never give up on anyone. — Krista Tippett

Nonviolence is the only way. Even if you achieve your goal by violent means there are always side effects, and these can be worse than the problem. Violence is against human nature. — Dalai Lama

PRACTICE OF THE Art of Peace is an act of faith, a belief in the ultimate power of nonviolence. It is faith in the power of purification and faith in the power of life itself. It is not a type of rigid discipline or empty asceticism. It is a path that follows natural principles, principles, that must be applied to daily living. The Art of Peace should be practiced from the time you rise to greet the morning to the time you retire at night. — Morihei Ueshiba

I am planting a tree in this bomb crater to remind us that in the midst of death, there is life ... and hope. — Robert S. Graetz

[The Dalai Lama] told me some years ago, "I've made every concession to China, and I've been as open and tolerant as I could, and still things get worse in Tibet." If you look at it from one point of view, as he himself says, his monastic position of forbearance and nonviolence hasn't reaped any benefits. And yet, he's thinking in terms of the long term, of centuries. — Pico Iyer

The power of nonviolence is not circumstance-specific. It is as applicable to the problems that confront us now, as to problems that confronted generations in the past. It is not a medicine or a solution so much as a healing process. It is the active spiritual immune system of humanity. — Marianne Williamson

Ours has not been unadulterated nonviolence in thought, word and deed. — Mahatma Gandhi

The Jain religion in India teaches that because all life is essentially interrelated and interconnected, all living beings should be considered sacred and be respected. This belief forms the basis of the doctrine of ahimsa, which has been translated into English variously as "reverence for life," "nonviolence," and "dynamic compassion." — Nathaniel Altman

The man or the woman who can display the nonviolence of the brave can easily stand against as external invasion. — Mahatma Gandhi

I think nonviolence and the mediation of conflict by means of respecting civility must be promoted. But being the kind of beings we [peoplep] are - wrestling with greed, and wrestling with fears and security, anxieties, wrestling with hatred that's shot through all of us - wars are here to stay. — Cornel West

Nonviolence is a universal law acting under all circumstances. — Mahatma Gandhi

The longer you practice nonviolence and the meditative qualities of it that you will need, the more likely you are to do something intelligent in any situation. — Joan Baez

If what passed as nonviolence does not enable people to protect the honour of women, or if it does not enable women to protect their own honour, it is not nonviolence. — Mahatma Gandhi

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. — Bernhard Haring

Non Violence and Religion:
Both designed to keep the oppressed from murdering their oppressors. — Darnell Lamont Walker

For peace, let us teach the humanity, tolerance and nonviolence. — Debasish Mridha

Indeed the very word, nonviolence, a negative word, means that it is an effort to abandon the violence that is inevitable in life. — Mahatma Gandhi

The point on nonviolence is to build a floor, a strong new floor, beneath which we can no longer sink. — Joan Baez

Just as there are signs by which you can recognize violence with the naked eye, so is the spinning wheel to me a decisive sign of nonviolence. — Mahatma Gandhi

We must always refill and ensure there is a critical mass of leaders and activists committed to nonviolence and racial and economic justice who will keep seeding and building transforming movements. — Marian Wright Edelman

I will repeat again that females are the symbols of nonviolence. Another thing I would say is that a female is more compromising. A female can talk with anyone easily. — Yingluck Shinawatra

A person who believes in nonviolence believes in a living God. He cannot accept defeat. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nonviolence is a way of life, where the task is to awaken the underlying goodness of every human being. — Amit Ray

The basis of Gandhi's nonviolence is to appeal to the good in others and evoke sympathy to one's cause through self-suffering. — Arun Gandhi

Nonviolence is a quality not of the body but of the soul. — Mahatma Gandhi

In 1989, thirteen nations comprising 1,695,000 people experienced nonviolent revolutions that succeeded beyond anyone's wildest expectations ... If we add all the countries touched by major nonviolent actions in our century (the Philippines, South Africa ... the independence movement in India ... ) the figure reaches 3,337,400,000, a staggering 65% of humanity! All this in the teeth of the assertion, endlessly repeated, that nonviolence doesn't work in the 'real' world. — Walter Wink

The relationship between violence and nonviolence in this country is interesting. The fact of the matter is, you know, people do respond to riots. The 1968 Housing Act was in large response to riots that broke out after Dr. Martin Luther King was killed. They cited these as an actual inspiration. — Ta-Nehisi Coates

Nonviolence is not a cloistered virtue, confined only to the rishi and the cave-dweller. — Mahatma Gandhi

They have the guns, we have the poets. Therefore, we will win. — Howard Zinn

Truth and nonviolence are both the means and the end, and given the right type of men, the legislatures can be the means of achieving the concrete pursuit of truth and nonviolence. — Mahatma Gandhi

Much as being active in the antislavery movement of the last century involved more than not engaging in slavery oneself, so joining in an antiviolence movement has to go beyond opting for nonviolence in one's personal life. It calls for engaging in imaginative and forceful practices of nonviolent resistance to violence, including taking a stand toward entertainment violence. — Sissela Bok

To obtain and possess the kingdoms of the world, with their power and glory, by violent injustice is to worship Satan. To obtain and possess the kingdom, the power, and the glory by nonviolent justice is to worship God. — John Dominic Crossan

The non-violent resistor not only avoids external, physical violence, but he avoids internal violence of spirit. He not only refuses to shoot his opponent, but he refuses to hate him. And he stands with understanding, goodwill at all times. — Martin Luther King Jr.

Most Americans think of Rosa Parks as a demur, pleasant-enough seamstress who backed into history by being too tired to get out of her seat on a bus one day, in reality she had been trained in nonviolence spirit and tactics at a famous institution, Highlander Folk School. It seems to be a difficult concept for most of us that peace is a skill that can be learned. We know war can be learned, but we seem to think that one becomes a peacemaker by a mere change of heart. (23) — Mahatma Gandhi

As we have seen, the first public expression of disenchantment with nonviolence arose around the question of 'self-defense.' In a sense this is a false issue, for the right to defend one's home and one's person when attacked has been guaranteed through the ages by common law. — Martin Luther King Jr.

Veganism is about nonviolence. It is about not engaging in harm to other sentient beings; to oneself; and to the environment upon which all beings depend for life. In my view, the animal rights movement is, at its core, a movement about ending violence to all sentient beings. It is a movement that seeks fundamental justice for all. It is an emerging peace movement that does not stop at the arbitrary line that separates humans from nonhumans. — Gary L. Francione

Nonviolence, when it becomes active, travels with extraordinary velocity, and then it becomes a miracle. — Mahatma Gandhi

Through Gandhi and my own life experience, I have learned about nonviolence. I believe that human life is a very special gift from God, and that no one has a right to take that away in any cause, however just. I am convinced that nonviolence is more powerful than violence. — Cesar Chavez

Nonviolence is the law of our species as violence is the law of the brute. The spirit lies dormant in the brute, and he knows no law but that of physical might. The dignity of man requires obedience to a higher laws - to the strength of the spirit. — Mahatma Gandhi

For a nation to be known as warrior is a shame! For a nation to be known as peaceful is an honour! Violence brings shame, killing brings disgrace; peacefulness brings honour, nonviolence brings esteem! — Mehmet Murat Ildan

What can be richer and more fruitful than a greater fulfillment of the vow of nonviolence in thought, word and deed or the spread of that spirit? — Mahatma Gandhi

My nonviolence does not admit of running away from danger and leaving the dear ones unprotected. — Mahatma Gandhi

Anyone can shoot a gun but the real power comes from non-violent means. — J.C. Phillips

Christ furnished the spirit and motivation while Gandhi furnished the method. — Martin Luther King Jr.