Petra Kelly Quotes

• Peace is not just the absence of mass destruction, but a positive internal and external condition in which people are free so that they can grow to their full potential.

  Petra Kelly

  Positivity, Mass Destruction, People

  Petra Karin Kelly, Glenn D. Paige (1992). “Nonviolence Speaks to Power”, Matsunaga Inst for Peace

  51 Copy quote

• Like the mind-set that places men above women, whites above blacks, and rich above poor, the mentality that places humans above nature is a dysfunctional delusion.

  Petra Kelly

  Men, Mind, Rich

  Petra Karin Kelly (1994). “Thinking green!: essays on environmentalism, feminism, and nonviolence”, Parallax Pr

  19 Copy quote

• We, the generation that faces the next century, can add the solemn injunction ''If we don't do the impossible, we shall be faced with the unthinkable.

  Petra Kelly

  Add, Generations, Next

  Petra Karin Kelly, Glenn D. Paige (1992). “Nonviolence Speaks to Power”, Matsunaga Inst for Peace

  13 Copy quote

• We cannot feast on global resources while the world's poor struggle to survive on inhospitable lands.
  It is as simple as that.
  It is the rich who are making the world poorer.
  Environment and Poverty are one crisis, not two.

  Petra Kelly

  Struggle, Simple, Land

  9 Copy quote

• Practically every violent conflict or social change has proved that violence unleashes violence in return.

  Petra Kelly

  Violence, Return, Conflict

  Petra Karin Kelly (1984). “Fighting for Hope”, p.31, South End Press

  12 Copy quote

• Uranium is the raw material of a power-elite who has taken Mother Earth's every living creature hostage.

  Petra Kelly

  Mother, Taken, Raw Materials

  20 Copy quote

• The vision I see is not only a movement of direct democracy, of self- and co-determination and non-violence, but a movement in which politics means the power to love and the power to feel united on the spaceship Earth.

  Petra Kelly

  Determination, Mean, Self

  55 Copy quote

• An industrial system predicated on the delusion of limitless expansion will, in time, consume its own basis of support.

  Petra Kelly

  Support, Expansion, Limitless

  Petra Karin Kelly (1994). “Thinking green!: essays on environmentalism, feminism, and nonviolence”, Parallax Pr

  7 Copy quote

• Militarism is in direct competition with people's needs for food, health care, and environmental protection.

  Petra Kelly

  People, Competition, Environmental

  14 Copy quote

• A truly free society must not include a peace which oppresses us. We must learn on our own terms what peace and freedom mean together. There can be no peace if there is social injustice and suppression of human rights, because external and internal peace are inseparable. Peace is not just the absence of mass destruction, but a positive internal and external condition in which people are free so that they can grow to their full potential.

  Petra Kelly

  Peace, Mean, Rights

  52 Copy quote

• We are at a point in human evolution when human solidarity on a global scale is absolutely vital for the survival of the human species. That means understanding that ... we are all co-inhabitants of this planet.

  Petra Kelly

  Mean, Understanding, Survival

  15 Copy quote

• I have hope for the world, although it is ten minutes before Doomsday. Women all over the world are rising up and infusing the anti-nuclear and peace movements with a vitality and creativity never seen before.

  Petra Kelly

  Creativity, Rising Up, Vitality

  Petra Karin Kelly (1984). “Fighting for Hope”, p.103, South End Press

  14 Copy quote

• The vision I see is not only a movement of direct democracy, of self- and co-determination and non-violence, but a movement in which politics means the power to love and the power to feel united on the spaceship Earth... In a world struggling in violence and dishonesty, the further development of non-violence - not only as a philosophy but as a way of life, as a force on the streets, in the market squares, outside the missile bases, inside the chemical plants and inside the war industry - becomes one of the most urgent priorities.

  Petra Kelly

  Determination, Philosophy, War

  54 Copy quote

• ... the state is not absolute, and loyalty to the state cannot be absolute.

  Petra Kelly

  Loyalty, Government, States

  Petra Karin Kelly (1994). “Thinking green!: essays on environmentalism, feminism, and nonviolence”, Parallax Pr

  11 Copy quote

• Our motto is, 'Be gentle and subversive.'

  Petra Kelly

  Motto, Gentle, Subversive

  4 Copy quote

• Overturning patriarchy does not mean replacing men's dominance with women's dominance. That would merely maintain the patriarchal pattern of dominance. We need to transform the pattern itself.

  Petra Kelly

  Mean, Men, Doe

  Petra Karin Kelly (1994). “Thinking green!: essays on environmentalism, feminism, and nonviolence”, Parallax Pr

  4 Copy quote

• The profound political changes we need in order to heal our planet will not come about through fragmented problem solving or intellectual analyses that overlook the deepest yearnings and intuitions of the heart....As we begin to cultivate a rich inner life and experience our connection with all life, we realize how little of what society tells us we need is actually important for our well-being....Green politics must address the spiritual vacuum of industrial society.

  Petra Kelly

  Spiritual, Heart, Order

  12 Copy quote

• Power over must be replaced by shared power, by the power to do things, by the discovery of our own strength as opposed to a passive receiving of power exercised by others, often in our name.

  Petra Kelly

  Discovery, Names, Receiving

  Petra Karin Kelly, Glenn D. Paige (1992). “Nonviolence Speaks to Power”, Matsunaga Inst for Peace

  6 Copy quote

• The transformation of forests into deserts, fertile earth into sunbaked concrete, and running rivers into silted floodwaters show that only through care for the environment can the livelihoods of those most dependent on it be sustained. We cannot allow economic and environmental concerns to be played off against each other.

  Petra Kelly

  Running, Rivers, Environmental

  Petra Karin Kelly (1994). “Thinking green!: essays on environmentalism, feminism, and nonviolence”, Parallax Pr

  9 Copy quote

• Time and time again we forget all too easily that nonviolent action embraces a wide and imaginative range of behavior which can always be stepped up.

  Petra Kelly

  Action, Forget, Behavior

  7 Copy quote

• I appeal to women not to let themselves become corrupted by male power. Emancipation is something more than a 'ticket' to serve in the army.

  Petra Kelly

  Army, Males, Tickets

  4 Copy quote

• European peace movement felt that the deployment of these missiles on European soil, on German soil would be a very great danger towards the Soviet Union in that those missiles could reach the Soviet Union, make it vulnerable within five to six minutes, that it could surgical strikes, strikes into the military infrastructure and that a strike into the military infrastructure could cause in fact World War III, an atomic world war and that this could also be used for first strike, for surgical search, first strike into the Soviet Union.

  Petra Kelly

  Military, War, Deployment

  9 Copy quote

• We call upon people everywhere to work for peace, to forget the quiet comfort of their homes, to leave behind their fears and feeling of powerlessness, their privileges and possessions, and join us as active participants and co-workers for peace.

  Petra Kelly

  Home, People, Feelings

  Petra Karin Kelly (1984). “Fighting for Hope”, p.74, South End Press

  7 Copy quote

• Violent revolutions usually only mean a change of personnel at the top.

  Petra Kelly

  Mean, Revolution, Violent

  Petra Karin Kelly (1984). “Fighting for Hope”, p.31, South End Press

  10 Copy quote

• I belong to the initiators of the... and we had repeatedly also asked the dismantling of the SS-20 but we did not connect them - that was the difference. We didn't connect them because we felt that this was a step taken, an unnecessary step by the American side and added to by the NATO member countries.

  Petra Kelly

  Country, Taken, Differences

  7 Copy quote

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