Pacifist Quotes - Page 5

• My temperament and habit had always kept me rather in the middle of the road; in politics as well as in social reform I had been for "the best possible." But now I was pushed far toward the left on the subject of the war and I became gradually convinced that in order to make the position of the pacifist clear it was perhaps necessary that at least a small number of us should be forced into an unequivocal position.

  Jane Addams

  War, Small Numbers, Order

  Jane Addams, Jean Bethke Elshtain (2002). “The Jane Addams Reader”, p.317, Basic Books

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• I am closer to the pacifist side, in that I think that the British response to German aggression, which was to try to starve the Continent into a state of revolt and to terrorize German civilians with bombing raids, was part of the total catastrophe.

  Nicholson Baker

  Thinking, Trying, Sides

  "Nicholson Baker: Human Smoke". Interview with James Mustich, www.barnesandnoble.com. April 7, 2008.

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• The pacifist thinks that the alternative to war is peace; it is not. Sometimes the alternative is oppression. Sometimes certain God-given rights and liberties can be preserved only by resistance to that which would destroy them. And to defend certain basic God-given rights and liberties is not immoral but righteous.

  Fulton J. Sheen

  War, Thinking, Rights

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• I am not an absolute pacifist, because I can't rule out the possibility that under some, carefully defined circumstances, some degree of violence may be justified, if it is focused directly at a great evil.

  Howard Zinn

  Evil, Violence, Degrees

  ZNet forum reply, May 26, 1999.

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• I will not call myself a pacifist for the very simple reason that if something like a [Francisco] Franco should arise in Spain again, or, for that matter, in America, and tried to take away whatever dwindling civil liberties and human rights we retain, I would resist them with a club if I had to. But my admiration for pacifism as an outlook and a sensibility is enormous. I just find that it gets me into contradictions, as it often gets many pacifists into contradictory positions and strategies.

  Murray Bookchin

  Simple, America, Rights

  Interview with Jeff Riggenbach, reason.com. October 1979.

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• As a lifelong pacifist, Quaker, and a gay man, I despair that gays and lesbians are expending energy trying to get into the military when they should be using that same energy getting rid of the military completely.

  Ned Rorem

  Military, Gay, Men

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• Perhaps my dynamite plants will put an end to war sooner than your [pacifist] congresses. On the day two army corps can annihilate each other in one second all civilized nations will recoil from war in horror.

  Alfred Nobel

  Military, War, Army

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• We're not really pacifists, we're nonviolent soldiers.

  Joan Baez

  Soldier

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• A people of scholars, if they are physically degenerate, weak-willed and cowardly pacifists, will not storm the heavens, indeed, they will not be able to safeguard their existence on this earth.

  Adolf Hitler

  Education, Science, People

  Adolf Hitler (1998). “Mein Kampf”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Pacifism in the face of war is not only irresponsible - it is immoral. Refusing to meet force with force in the name of peace will beget not peace, but further death and destruction, the very violence the pacifists seek to avoid.

  David Limbaugh

  Peace, War, Names

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• In the sixties, during the Vietnam war, when anarchists and pacifists and socialists, Democrats and Republicans, decent-hearted Americans, all recoiled with horror at the bloodbath, we came together.

  Pete Seeger

  War, Together, Vietnam

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• Wicksell's old-fashioned liberalism is reminiscent of John Maynard Keynes' attitude toward conscription during World War I. Keynes opposed conscription, but he was not a pacifist. He opposed conscription because it deprived the citizen of the right to decide for himself whether or not to join in the fight. Keynes was exempt as a civil servant from conscription; so there is no need to question his sincerity. Apparently his belief in the rights of the individual against a majority of his compatriots was very strong indeed.

  Mancur Olson

  Strong, Attitude, War

  Mancur OLSON (2009). “The Logic of Collective Action”, p.90, Harvard University Press

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• Being a pacifist to save your own life is normal, being a pacifist for the lives of others is true pacifism.

  Ammon Hennacy

  Normal, Life Is, Pacifism

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• Principles are what people have instead of God. To be a Christian means among other things to be willing if necessary to sacrifice even your highest principles for God's or your neighbour's sake the way a Christian pacifist must be willing to pick up a baseball bat if there's no other way to stop a man from savagely beating a child. Jesus didn't forgive his executioners on principle but because in some unimaginable way he was able to love them. 'Principle' is an even duller word than 'Religion'.

  Frederick Buechner

  Christian, Baseball, Jesus

  FaceBook post by Frederick Buechner from Jul 02, 2015

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• A pacifist male is a contradiction in terms. Most self-described "pacifists" are not pacific; they simply assume false colors. When the wind changes, they hoist the Jolly Roger.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Self, Color, Wind

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.223, Penguin

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• I think that religions must seek peace and love and therefore be pacifist.

  Pierre Trudeau

  Thinking, And Love, Peace And Love

  Source: presbyterianrecord.ca

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• [A pacifist is] the last and least excusable on the list of the enemies of society.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Enemy, Lasts, Lists

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• Nobody who's ever been to Gulag is a pacifist.

  William F. Buckley, Jr.

  Peace, War, Gulags

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• Those who refuse to support and defend the state have no claim to protection by that state. Killing an anarchist or a pacifist should not be considered "murder" in a legalistic sense. The offense against the state, if any, should be "Using deadly weapons within city limits," or "Creating a traffic hazard," or other misdemeanor.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Peace, War, Cities

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• Slobodan Miloševi?, more than anyone else, caused a division within the Left and Centre Left, dividing the pacifists, anti-imperialists and anti-Americans from the anti-fascists and the internationalists. He reminded too many of us that inaction can be as toxic and murderous as action. He prepared us - for weal or woe - for the new world.

  Slobodan Milosević

  World, Woe, Toxic

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• I'm not a pacifist by any measure, but I'm also fully aware that the reasons I might go to war could be very dubious.

  Sherman Alexie

  War, Dubious, Might

  "Sherman Alexie: Don’t Call Me Warrior". Interview with Kiera Butler, www.motherjones.com. November 2009.

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• There's this whole notion of being an Indian - the idea that "warrior" is a positive description of us [Indians as native Americans]. When an Indian guy does well, he's a warrior, even now. He could be a computer salesman, but if he does well, he's a warrior. I'm not a pacifist by any measure, but I'm also fully aware that the reasons I might go to war could be very dubious.

  Sherman Alexie

  War, Native American, Ideas

  "Sherman Alexie: Don’t Call Me Warrior". Interview with Kiera Butler, www.motherjones.com. November/December 2009.

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• A serious pacifist approach can't win wars against enemies whose only program is violence. That doesn't mean I think the US has fought terrorists so wisely most of the time since 9/11. But there are some enemies that need to be destroyed by force lest they destroy much much more.

  Philip Gourevitch

  War, Mean, Winning

  "Ask the Author Live: Philip Gourevitch on Osama Bin Laden". The New Yorker Live Chat, www.newyorker.com. May 4, 2011.

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• Guns make me very nervous. They're dangerous. I'm more of a pacifist than anyone could imagine.

  Christopher Walken

  Gun, Nervous, Imagine

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Gandhi was such an important figure to the pacifists of the '30s, and he was such an extraordinary embodiment of nonviolence, that I thought it was necessary to have him in there. When he would say something about the war, it was to some extent news - and he was sure to have a response that was different from that of other world leaders.

  Nicholson Baker

  War, Other Worlds, Leader

  Source: www.barnesandnoble.com

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