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Kirby Page Quotes
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Kirby Page was an American Disciples of Christ minister, an author, and a peace activist.

✵ 1890 – 1957
Kirby Page: 248 quotes5 likes

Kirby Page Quotes

“Communists have nothing but contempt for religion and for pacifism. They use the united front as a means of boring from within.”

Kirby Page

Property (1935)

“Shall we use the weapons of violence and bloodshed or is there a more effective weapon available?”

Kirby Page

Foreword p. 9
The Sword or the Cross, Which Should be the Weapon of the Christian Militant? (1921)

“Courageous and sacrificial men may use wrong methods or pursue unworthy ends.”

Kirby Page

"What is War?" (1924)

“In the early days of our Federal Government, skeptics concerning its usefulness were found in high places.”

Kirby Page

An American Peace Policy (1925)

“War is not high ideals. War is not noble objectives. War is not gallant heroism. War is not sacrificial devotion.”

Kirby Page

Must We Go to War? (1937)

“Exceptions to the rule do not invalidate the general principle that restraint by capital punishment and warfare is grossly ineffective and highly perilous.”

Kirby Page

Individualism and Socialism (1933)

“Countless numbers of people have justified war on grounds of the end in view and the spirit of the combatants.”

Kirby Page

"What is War?" (1924)

“We gain illumination as to the immensity of Jesus' contribution in setting before us a vision of the new society, and indicating ways and means of bringing it to pass.”

Kirby Page

The Personality of Jesus (1932)

“We would enter the League not because we believe in a perfect instrument—on the contrary, its weakness and grave imperfections are fully recognized—but because the place for a powerful nation like the United States is on the inside, where it may aid in determining the character of its activities and the scope of its jurisdiction, rather than on the outside, indulging in harshest criticism.”

Kirby Page

An American Peace Policy (1925)

“This race of armaments made Europe an armed camp and laid the foundations for the most colossal slaughter in human history.”

Kirby Page

"What is War?" (1924)

“Mutual aid is the way to prevent the third world war. Mutual aid is also the way to stop the internal growth of Communism by providing our people with plenty, security and freedom.”

Kirby Page

What Does God Want Us to Do About Russia? (1948)

“My own conviction is that if the transfer cannot be made without civil war, it cannot be made at all, and that there is a reasonable probability that, if the government is supported by a considerable majority of citizens and if it is re-enforced by a powerful labor movement and cooperative movement, the change may be brought about without armed resistance from the owning class. The program that I have outlined is, of course, that of the Socialist Party of America, although not all Socialists will agree with everything that I have written.”

Kirby Page

Property (1935)

“We can take Jesus seriously and strive earnestly to follow him, or we can prepare to wage atomic war, but it is utterly impossible to do both at the same time.”

Kirby Page

What Does God Want Us to Do About Russia? (1948)

“Even after proper discount is made for false propaganda, the evidence is indisputable that every invading army perpetrates atrocity, so much so that war may correctly be defined as atrocity. Reference to various standard dictionaries reveals the following definition of atrocity: "A deed of violence or savagery; great cruelty or reckless wickedness; extreme cruelty; enormous wickedness."”

Kirby Page

Must We Go to War? (1937)

“If rugged individualists would throw away the right to fight for special privilege and would cooperate in a collective endeavor to secure plenty for everybody, they would have time, energy, and desire to explore higher pathways of living.”

Kirby Page

Property (1935)

“There is no inherent irreconcilability between love and coercion, but rather the reverse; under some circumstances love ceases to be love if it fails to use moral means of restraint.”

Kirby Page

Individualism and Socialism (1933)

“When we are reminded that modern men find it difficult to believe in the divinity of Jesus, we urge a search for realities that are far greater than words. If Jesus gives us our clearest vision of the nature of God; if he reveals the godlike qualities in man; if he secures penitence, restitution, joyous allegiance, and heroic sacrifice; if he leads to deliverance for individuals and groups—he becomes a symbol for all that is noblest in the universe, whatever may be the title by which he is characterized.”

Kirby Page

The Personality of Jesus (1932)

“When we are reminded of his apocalyptic concepts and are told that an interim ethic possesses little validity for distant centuries, we are able to make rejoinder that his experience of God, his valuation of man, his call to love, forgiveness, and sacrifice are universal and eternal.”

Kirby Page

The Personality of Jesus (1932)

“There may be occasions when "to do unto others as you would have them do unto you" requires coercion.”

Kirby Page

Individualism and Socialism (1933)

“A deep fog of obscurity is thrown about war by the use of misleading and confusing terms.”

Kirby Page

Must We Go to War? (1937)

“Faith in armed might paralyzes international action.”

Kirby Page

Now is the Time to Prevent a Third World War (1950)

“Religious groups should exert themselves in behalf of the unemployed and should be zealous in defense of civil liberties, but they merely weaken their efforts when they enter into combinations with communists.”

Kirby Page

Property (1935)

“The way of disarmament and of mutual aid and of international cooperation is a highly dangerous way. It is not safe. But it is safer, safer than the race of armaments and the third world war.”

Kirby Page

What Does God Want Us to Do About Russia? (1948)

“If certain types and degrees of compulsion represent true expressions of brotherly affection, coercion may ennoble personality. If the killing of a brother is an act which in its very essence is alien to and destructive of the family bond, then it is ethically unjustifiable.”

Kirby Page

Individualism and Socialism (1933)

“Of all the founders of great religions, Jesus alone proclaimed one God, immanent and powerful, holy and righteous, a loving and seeking Father, concerned about the welfare of each of his children.”

Kirby Page

Source: Something More, A Consideration of the Vast, Undeveloped Resources of Life (1920), p. 43-44

“Feebleness of confidence in the power of international goodwill operating through appropriate agencies of international justice and friendship is at present paralyzing efforts to take the steps which must be taken if war is to be averted.”

Kirby Page

Now is the Time to Prevent a Third World War (1950)

“Taxation must be used as an instrument of social policy, but if carried too far under the profit system, it may be an instrument of destruction rather than construction.”

Kirby Page

Property (1935)

“Jesus was face to face with a concrete situation similar in principle to that of Belgium in 1914…. The issues at stake… were similar in principle, namely freedom versus bondage…. Why not follow the warlike example of Joshua and David and Judas Maccabeus? Does not the end justify the means? These are questions that Jesus faced.”

Kirby Page

Source: The Sword or the Cross, Which Should be the Weapon of the Christian Militant? (1921), Ch.3 p. 58-59

“To the degree that a man possesses a vivid ideal of the good life, submerges himself in the sea of human misery and endeavors to alleviate suffering, kindles imagination in hours of silence and by visions of beauty, and follows the noblest personality into the presence of a loving, suffering Father—to the extent that he lives meaningfully, he will be convinced of sin and cry aloud for deliverance.”

Kirby Page

"Penitence and Social Progress" World Tomorrow 15 (May, 1932)

“If various races and nationalities can live together peaceably in the United States, why is it not within the bounds of possibility that they can learn to live this way throughout the earth?”

Kirby Page

An American Peace Policy (1925)

“The supreme need of the world today is for a true conception and a deeper knowledge of God. The Hindu mother tosses her baby to the crocodiles, the devout pilgrim mutilates his body, the pious monk retires to the wilderness, the martial Moslem massacres the unbelieving, the consecrated missionary lays down his life for his enemy—all of these deeds are founded on varying conceptions of God.”

Kirby Page

Source: Something More, A Consideration of the Vast, Undeveloped Resources of Life (1920), p. 15

“Preparedness to use the weapons of war creates the tempers, the quarrels and the crises which lead to the outbreak of war.”

Kirby Page

What Does God Want Us to Do About Russia? (1948)

“The war method includes falsehood as an integral part. Truth is indeed a casualty of war.”

Kirby Page

Must We Go to War? (1937)

“As long as ministers and laymen labor under the delusion that contemporary Christianity is the same religion that Jesus practiced they will remain immunized against his way of life and will lack the vision.”

Kirby Page

Source: Jesus or Christianity: A Study in Contrasts (1929), p. 2

“By what name shall we call this animating principle of the universe, this source of all phenomana? Some call it Force or Energy or Mind, others call it God. Some call this idea a working hypothesis, others call it Faith.”

Kirby Page

Source: Something More, A Consideration of the Vast, Undeveloped Resources of Life (1920), p. 15

“Plenty for everyone can be provided in the United States if the anarchistic economic freedom of the frontier is renounced and replaced by the higher freedom of collectivism, through the socialization of the basic industries and the approximate equalization of economic privilege.”

Kirby Page

Property (1935)

“The profit motive and the competitive struggle are more productive and less destructive on the frontier than in the city. Maldistribution of income becomes more devastating with increasing complexity and interdependence.”

Kirby Page

Property (1935)

“If the moral approval of religious people were withdrawn from the system of individualism, it could be quickly transformed. Just as the churches belatedly called slavery a sin, and later religious institutions pronounced war to be the world's colossal sin, religious institutions should now declare that sanctioning and supporting the profit system is sin.”

Kirby Page

Individualism and Socialism (1933)

“These mighty weapons of explosion and fire are already obsolete, and the improved weapons of today will be dwarfed by the monstrous weapons of tomorrow.”

Kirby Page

What Does God Want Us to Do About Russia? (1948)

“To increase the number of men and women in all lands who will refuse absolutely to sanction the use of any unchristian weapon, who will follow without compromise the teaching and example of Jesus Christ, and who will seek diligently by every possible means to spread abroad in the lives of individuals and of nations the spirit of Jesus, this is the only sure way to abolish war.”

Kirby Page

Source: The Sword or the Cross, Which Should be the Weapon of the Christian Militant? (1921), Ch.6 p. 107

“Dwight L. Moody was changed from a shoe salesman into an evangelist whose influence has reached around the world. In all parts of the earth are men and women whose characters were transformed as a direct result of contact with the changed Moody.”

Kirby Page

Source: Something More, A Consideration of the Vast, Undeveloped Resources of Life (1920), p. 37

“The very name of Jesus means, "He shall save his people from their sins." He came to seek and save the lost, those who are enslaved by sin.”

Kirby Page

Source: Something More, A Consideration of the Vast, Undeveloped Resources of Life (1920), p. 87

“Plato and Aristotle were both convinced that democratic government could not function successfully in an area larger than a city-state.”

Kirby Page

An American Peace Policy (1925)

“The supreme task before the people of the United States today is the Americanizing and, above all, the Christianizing of the great cities of the country. …It calls for consecrated leadership and prayer of the intensest sort.”

Kirby Page

"The Disciples of Christ and the City" World Call 1 (July, 1919)

“War is method. War is atrocity. War is wholesale falsehood. War is the practice of military necessity. War is the utter denial of the spirit and example of Jesus.”

Kirby Page

Must We Go to War? (1937)

“Imperialist war arises not merely because of bitter economic competition among industrialists and financiers of various nations, but because of the dominance of government by powerful vested interests who use the armed forces of the nation to increase their private gains in other lands. To the degree that the power of these groups is broken by socialization and equalization of economic privilege, the likelihood of war is thereby reduced.”

Kirby Page

Property (1935)

“The consolidation of financial and industrial power in the hands of a small section of the people leads inevitably to more and more intense congestion of money.”

Kirby Page

Property (1935)

“Before a just society can be established the property system and the penal code of such a social order must be radically transformed.”

Kirby Page

Individualism and Socialism (1933)

“Our difficulty comes, of course, in deciding where ethical coercion ends and unethical violence begins. The only person who is able to escape from this dilemma is the complete anarchist who repudiates every form of restraint and compassion—and such a man has no solution to offer for the imminently menacing problems of the hour. All other persons are obliged to draw the line somewhere, and orderly progress depends upon intellectual keenness and ethical sensitiveness with which the situation is confronted.”

Kirby Page

The Personality of Jesus (1932)

“The truth of the matter is that, even under individualism, only a small fraction of the population is impelled chiefly by the profit motive, and that vast multitudes of men and women are motivated by other incentives than by the desire for profit. …nevertheless, they are strategic individuals whose activities are essential to efficiency in industry.”

Kirby Page

Property (1935)