Working with Peace Quotes
Peace Tree by Sayzie Carr
Listed below are a series of quotes that speak directly to working toward and achieving peace. They date from biblical times to the present day. Read each one and determine which has the most meaning to you. Here are some activities you can do with the quotes:
- Create a list of directions, or a checklist, for achieving peace based on the ideas the quotes suggest.
- Research the authors of the quotes and report on whom they were and what events in their lives brought them to think about peace, non-violence and resolving conflict in the way in which they did.
- Create a peace book which may include the sayings below, newly researched quotes, and most importantly, quotes that you get from your family, friends and teachers to share with you. The book could be illustrated with graphics, drawings or personal collages.
In place of weapons of violence, you have to use your mind, your heart, your sense of humor, every faculty available to you….because no one has the right to take the
life of another human being.
Joan Baez
If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another.
Winston Churchill
I prefer the most unfair peace to the most righteous war.
Cicero.
If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.
Moshe Dayan
The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The most disadvantageous peace is better than the most just war.
Erasmus
There never was a good war or a bad peace.
Benjamin Franklin
You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist.
Indira Gandhi
I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.
Mohandas K. Gandhi
When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.
Jimi Hendrix
The case of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.
Thomas Jefferson
Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.
Lyndon B Johnson
I do not want the peace that passeth understanding. I want the understanding
which bringeth peace
Helen Keller.
Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind….War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.
John F. Kennedy
Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.
John F. Kennedy
War is the greatest plague that can afflict humanity; it destroys religion, it destroys states, it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable to it.
Martin Luther, German founder of Lutheranism (1483-1546)
Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.
Abraham Lincoln
Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.
Maria Montessori
Five enemies of peace inhabit with us -- avarice, ambition, envy, anger, and pride; if these were to be banished, we should infallibly enjoy perpetual peace.
Petrarch (14th century)
For it isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work for it.
Eleanor Roosevelt, Humanitarian, Educator, UN Spokesperson & 32nd US First Lady
Peace, like charity, begins at home.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
instead of tug o' war, let's play hug o' war
Shel Silverstein
Your own soul is nourished when you are kind; it is destroyed when you are cruel.
King Solomon of Israel (970-928 BCE)
Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all.
George Washington
Peace is our gift to each other.
Elie Wiesel