Pacifist Quotes

• I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Peace, War

  Albert Einstein (2017). “Einstein on Peace”, p.184, Pickle Partners Publishing

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• Naturally, the common people don't want war ... but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.

  Hermann Goring

  Country, Peace, Military

  Interview in Göring's jail cell, April 18, 1946. "Nuremberg Diary". Book by Gustave Gilbert, 1947.

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• If people have to put labels on me, I'd prefer the first label to be human being, the second label to be pacifist, and the third to be folk singer.

  Joan Baez

  People, Labels, Singers

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• Since pacifists have more freedom of action in countries where traces of democracy survive, pacifism can act more effectively against democracy than for it. Objectively the pacifist is pro-Nazi.

  George Orwell

  Country, Democracy, Action

  George Orwell (2009). “All Art Is Propaganda: Critical Essays”, p.171, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders...tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.

  Hermann Goring

  Country, Peace, Freedom

  Quoted in Gustave M. Gilbert, Nuremberg Diary (1947).

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• The quietly pacifist peaceful always die to make room for men who shout.

  Alice Walker

  Technology, Men, Peaceful

  Alice Walker (2013). “The Cushion in the Road: Meditation and Wandering as the Whole World Awakens to Being in Harm's Way”, p.289, New Press, The

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• I'm not a pacifist. I feel that there are situations where fighting is inescapable, but we don't go looking for those things.

  Bruce Cockburn

  Fighting, Situation, Feels

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• Men have been pacifists for every reason under the sun except to avoid danger and fighting.

  William Faulkner

  Fighting, Men, Sun

  William Faulkner (2011). “Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner”, p.85, Vintage

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• Naturally the common people don't want war. . . but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along. . .

  Hermann Goring

  Country, War, Simple

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• What's in that pipe that he's smoking?

  Arlo Guthrie

  Funny Christmas, Humorous, Smoking

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• Jesus was a pacifist.

  Chris Hedges

  Jesus

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• The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Country, Peace, Humanity

  Theodore Roosevelt (2015). “Theodore Roosevelt on Bravery: Lessons from the Most Courageous Leader of the Twentieth Century”, p.79, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• Why, of course, the people don't want war.

  Hermann Goring

  War, Communist Leaders, Political Will

  Interview in Göring's jail cell, April 18, 1946. "Nuremberg Diary". Book by Gustave Gilbert, 1947.

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• Nothing will end war unless the peoples themselves refuse to go to war.

  Albert Einstein

  War, People, Ends

  "Einstein on Peace".

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• Pacifist propaganda and the resolutions of the parliamentarians encouraged such treaties, and toward the end of the nineteenth century their number had increased considerably.

  Ludwig Quidde

  Numbers, Propaganda, Resolution

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• Even a pacifist should admire the military virtues.

  John Keegan

  Military, Virtue, Should

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• From pacifist to terrorist, each person condemns violence - and then adds one cherished case in which it may be justified.

  Gloria Steinem

  Add, May, Violence

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• My father, who had lost a brother, fighting on the Austrian side in World War I, was a committed pacifist.

  Walter Kohn

  Brother, Father, War

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• I had to experience how someone beside me suddenly falls over and is dead and the bullet has hit him squarely. I had to experience that quite directly. I wanted it. I'm therefore not a pacifist at all - or am I?

  Otto Dix

  Fall, Bullets, Wanted

  "Otto Dix, 1891-1969", exhibition catalogue, London: Tate Gallery, 1992, pp. 17 - 18; as cited by Roy Forward, in "Education resource material: beauty, truth and goodness in Dix's War", p. 9,

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• I'm not a pacifist. I was very much for the war against Hitler and I also supported the intervention in Korea, but in this war we went in there to steal Vietnam.

  Benjamin Spock

  War, Korea, Vietnam

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• The absolute pacifist is a bad citizen; times come when force must be used to uphold right, justice and ideals.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Justice, Citizens, Force

  Alfred North Whitehead, Lucien Price (2001). “Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead”, p.93, David R. Godine Publisher

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• A pacifist will often - at least nowadays - be an internationalist and vice versa. But history shows us that a pacifist need not think internationally.

  Christian Lous Lange

  Thinking, Vices, Needs

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• My opposition to war is not based upon pacifist or non-resistant principles. It may be that the present state of civilization is such that certain international questions cannot be discussed; it may be that they have to be fought out. But the fighting never settles the question. It only gets the participants around to a frame of mind where they will agree to discuss what they were fighting about.

  Henry Ford

  War, Fighting, Civilization

  Henry Ford (2015). “My Life and Work: Top Biography”, p.165, 谷月社

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• A pacifist between wars is like a vegetarian between meals.

  Ammon Hennacy

  War, Meals, Vegetarian

  "Revolution Of The Heart: Essays On the Catholic Worker". Book edited by Patrick G. Coy, 1988.

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• All that a pacifist can undertake -- but it is a very great deal -- is to refuse to kill, injure or otherwise cause suffering to another human creature, and untiringly to order his life by the rule of love though others may be captured by hate.

  Vera Brittain

  Peace, Hate, Order

  "What Can We Do In Wartime?", September 9, 1939.

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