“Humanity could live in peace - but it doesn't, because from the cradle we are taught to compete and fight, win, dominate and kill each other. These lessons and the world view behind them becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: a state of affairs is created where you have to compete, fight and kill.”
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Yrjö Kallinen4
Finnish politician 1886–1976Related quotes
“We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.”
Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)
J. William Fulbright (1905–1995) American politician
"The Price of Empire" speech, to the meeting of the American Bar Association in Hawaii (August 1967), in Haynes Bonner Johnson and Bernard M. Gwertzman, Fulbright: The Dissenter (1968), p. 305.
“I was taught to fight, taught to win;
I never thought I could fail.”
Peter Gabriel (1950) English singer-songwriter, record producer and humanitarian
Don't Give Up, Duet written by Gabriel, sung with Kate Bush
Song lyrics, So (1986)
Context: In this proud land we grew up strong;
We were wanted all along.
I was taught to fight, taught to win;
I never thought I could fail.No fight left or so it seems;
I am a man whose dreams have all deserted.
I've changed my face, I've changed my name,
But no one wants you when you lose.
“If you are a man of learning, fight in the skull, kill ideas and create new ones.”
Nikos Kazantzakis book The Saviors of God
The Saviors of God (1923)
Context: If you are a man of learning, fight in the skull, kill ideas and create new ones. God hides in every idea as in every cell of flesh. Smash the idea, set him free! Give him another, a more spacious idea in which to dwell.
Robert Mugabe (1924–2019) former President of Zimbabwe
Remarks at a memorial for Joshua Nkomo (2 July 2000), referring to the Gukurahundi massacres. Quoted in Mugabe: Power, Plunder, and the Struggle for Zimbabwe's Future (2009) by Martin Meredith
2000s, 2000-2004
John Mearsheimer book The Tragedy of Great Power Politics
Preface, p. xi
The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (2001)
Rodrigo Duterte (1945) Filipino politician and the 16th President of the Philippines
Original: (tl) Kulong? Ay 'sus. Kulong, eh noong teenager ako pasok-labas-pasok ako sa kulungan. Rambol dito, rambol – at the age of 16, may pinatay na ako. Tao talaga. Rambol. Saksak. Noong 16 years old iyon, nagkatinginan lang.<br><br> Duterte claims he stabbed someone to death as a 16-year-old https://www.rappler.com/nation/187906-rodrigo-duterte-stab-16-years-old(November 9, 2017)
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and novelist
"Sunday Morning".
Conversations with Robertson Davies (1989)