Peace

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 hater but you do not murder the hate, in fact violence increases hate. Returning violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.

— Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Civil Rights Leader (1929-1968)

This is the way of peace:
Overcome evil with good,
and falsehood with truth,
and hatred with love.

Peace Pilgrim
(1908-1981)

When we see God
in each other
we will be able
to live
in peace.

—Mother Teresa
(1910-1997)

World peace begins with inner peace.
What is reflected on the outer is merely a mirror
of what is on the inner.
Trying to change the world without working to change consciousness
is like trying to change the image in a mirror
without changing the object
that is being reflected.
The physical environment and circumstances we experience,
are merely a reflection of our consciousness.
Our consciousness is created by our thoughts -- the true creative force.
To change our consciousness we must transform all our limiting thoughts.

—from Free Yourself from Fear by Carol Hansen Grey, 1999
Founder: Only Love Prevails World Peace Experiment

What kind of peace do I mean?
What kind of peace do we seek?
Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world
by American weapons of war.
Not the peace of the grave
or the security of the slave.
I am talking about genuine peace,
the kind of peace that makes life
on earth worth living,
the kind that enables men and nations
to grow and to hope and to build
a better life for their children --
not merely peace for Americans
but peace for all men and women --
not merely peace in our time
but peace for all time.

~ President John F. Kennedy
at American University, 10 June 1963

"I charge you all that each one of you concentrate all the thoughts of your heart on love and unity. When a thought of war comes, oppose it by a stronger thought of peace. A thought of hatred must be destroyed by a more powerful thought of love. Thoughts of war bring destruction to all harmony, well-being, restfulness and content.

Thoughts of love are constructive of brotherhood, peace, friendship, and happiness.

When soldiers of the world draw their swords to kill, soldiers of God clasp each other's hands! So may all the savagery of man disappear by the Mercy of God, working through the pure in heart and the sincere of soul. Do not think the peace of the world an ideal impossible to attain!

Nothing is impossible to the Divine Benevolence of God.

If you desire with all your heart, friendship with every race on earth, your thought, spiritual and positive, will spread; it will become the desire of others, growing stronger and stronger, until it reaches the minds of all men.

Do not despair! Work steadily. Sincerity and love will conquer hate. How many seemingly impossible events are coming to pass in these days! Set your faces steadily towards the Light of the World. Show love to all; `Love is the breath of the Holy Spirit in the heart of Man'. Take courage! God never forsakes His children who strive and work and pray! Let your hearts be filled with the strenuous desire that tranquillity and harmony may encircle all this warring world. So will success crown your efforts, and with the universal brotherhood will come the Kingdom of God in peace and goodwill."

--Baha'i: Abdu'l-Baha: Paris Talks, Written in 1912 (pp 29-30)

In this world, hate never dispelled hate.
Only love dispels hate.
This is the law, ancient and inexhaustible.
—The Buddha

Kids can't see us bombing, and then listen to us
talking about getting guns out of the schools.
How can we tell them to solve problems without violence,
if, in fact, we can't show an ability to solve problems
without violence?

— US Congresswoman Barbara Lee

More than guided missiles,
all the world needs
guided men.

Poet Helen Steiner Rice
1900-1981

The first peace, which is the most important,
is that which comes within the souls of people
when they realize their relationship,
their oneness with the universe and all its powers,
and when they realize that at the center of the universe
dwells the Great Spirit,
and that this center is really everywhere,
it is within each of us.

— Black Elk (1863-1950)
    Oglala Sioux Holy Man

You can no more
win a war
than you can
win an earthquake.

— Jeanette Rankin (1880-1968)
(the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress)