“If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.”
Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)
Peaceful quotes
A collection of quotes on the topic of wise, peaceful, peace, beauty.
Best peaceful quotes
“Patience is the companion of wisdom.”
Patientia comes est sapientiae
Aurelius Augustinus (354–430) early Christian theologian and philosopher
De Patientia http://www.augustinus.it/latino/pazienza/index.htm chapter 5
“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
Source: A Knock at Midnight: Inspiration from the Great Sermons of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Happiness is the readiness to be happy.”
James Richardson (1950) American poet
Aphorism #33
Interglacial (2004)
“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.”
Aristotle book Parts of Animals
Book I, 645a.16
Parts of Animals
“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.”
Dale Carnegie book How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
Source: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately…”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
“If you’re going through hell, keep going.”
Kristin Hannah book The Nightingale
Source: The Nightingale
Peaceful quotes
“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”
Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
Attributed on the internet but not found in print prior to an attribution in Aero Digest, Vols. 58–59, 1949, p. 115 https://books.google.com/books?id=q2ofAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22Life+is+simple%22+but+we+insist+on+making+it+complicated&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22Life+is+simple%22+ <br class="br">Misattributed, Not Chinese
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
'Where Do We Go From Here?" as published in Where Do We Go from Here : Chaos or Community? (1967), p. 62; many statements in this book, or slight variants of them, were also part of his address Where Do We Go From Here?" which has a section below. A common variant appearing at least as early as 1968 has "Returning violence for violence multiplies violence..." An early version of the speech as published in A Martin Luther King Treasury (1964), p. 173, has : "Returning hate for hate multiplies hate..."
1960s
Source: A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches
Context: 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 liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. … Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.”
Corrie ten Boom (1892–1983) Dutch resistance hero and writer
Source: Clippings from My Notebook
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer
“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”
Epictetus (50–138) philosopher from Ancient Greece
Book III, ch. 23.
Discourses
“True peace is not merely the absence of war, it is the presence of justice.”
Jane Addams (1860–1935) pioneer settlement social worker
Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910–1997) French naval officer, explorer, conservationist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and …
“The richness I achieve comes from nature, the source of my inspiration.”
Claude Monet (1840–1926) French impressionist painter
“Don't gain the world and lose your soul
Wisdom is better than silver and gold.”
Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician
Zion Train
Uprising (1979)
“When the power of love overcomes love of power the world will know peace.”
Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970) American musician, singer and songwriter
This quote has been attributed to Hendrix on the internet, and is flatly denied to have ever been said by him, without presenting any evidence as to why, beyond such unsupported, derisive and denigrative statements such as the author rants about others making in "WHAT HENDRIX NEVER SAID : They Don't Want to Know What He Really Said and Demand a Slacker Fantasy Instead" (22 March 2010) by Michael Fairchild, at rockprophecy.com http://www.rockprophecy.com/hendrix_quotes_hoax.html. Whether or not he ever spoke them, they are very similar to those reportedly of British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, quoted in The Forbes Book of Business Quotations (1997) edited by Edward C. Goodman and Ted Goodman, p. 639: "We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace." A similar quotation he provides of Sri Chinmoy predates any currently located source of either the Hendrix or Gladstone attributions, yet he accuses Chinmoy of simple plagiarism of Gladstone (or "Gladwell" at one point). From Chinmoy's book My Heart Shall Give A Oneness-Feast (1993) he quotes: "My books, they all have only one message: the heart's Power Of Love must replace the mind's Love Of Power. If I have the Power Of Love, then I shall claim the whole World as my own … World Peace can be achieved when the Power Of Love replaces the Love Of Power." An even earlier statement of Chinmoy is found in Meditations: Food For The Soul (1970): "When the power of love replaces the love of power, man will have a new name: God." <br class="br">Disputed <br class="br">Variant: When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
Source: I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World
“Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.”
Maria Montessori (1870–1952) Italian pedagogue, philosopher and physician
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
Viktor E. Frankl book Man's Search for Meaning
Source: Man's Search for Meaning
“There is another world, but it is in this one.”
Paul Éluard (1895–1952) French poet
Il y a assurément un autre monde, mais il est dans celui-ci...
Œuvres complètes, vol. 1, Gallimard, 1968.
“All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child.”
Marie Curie (1867–1934) French-Polish physicist and chemist
Pierre Curie (1923), as translated by Charlotte Kellogg and Vernon Lyman Kellogg, p. 162
“Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.”
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)
As quoted in The Wright Style (1992) by Carla Lind, p. 3
William Blake Auguries of Innocence
Variant: To see a World in a grain of sand,
And a Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour.
Source: 1800s, Auguries of Innocence (1803), Line 1
“It is not enough to win a war; it is more important to organize the peace.”
Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
“We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen more than we say.”
Zeno of Citium (-334–-263 BC) ancient Greek philosopher
As quoted in Diogenes Laërtius Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, vii. 23.
Variant translation: The reason why we have two ears and only one mouth is that we may listen the more and talk the less.
“World-peace can be achieved when the power of love replaces the love of power.”
Sri Chinmoy (1931–2007) Indian writer and guru
Words of Wisdom (2010)
Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist
Source: The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation
“If there is a good will, there is great way.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English playwright and poet
Margaret Mead (1901–1978) American anthropologist
Source: Kabir, Hajara Muhammad (2010). Northern women development. [Nigeria]. ISBN 978-978-906-469-4. OCLC 890820657 note: 1940s, Male and Female (1949)
“Sometimes you have to pick the gun up to put the Gun down.”
Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist
“We make war that we may live in peace.”
Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy
“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”
William Morris (1834–1896) author, designer, and craftsman
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926–2004) American psychiatrist
“For it is in giving that we receive.”
Francis of Assisi (1182–1226) Catholic saint and founder of the Franciscan Order
“Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in.”
Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet
"The Death of the Hired Man" (1914)
1910s
Rachel Carson (1907–1964) American marine biologist and conservationist
Source: The Sense of Wonder (1965)
Context: Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life. Whatever the vexations or concerns of their personal lives, their thoughts can find paths that lead to inner contentment and to renewed excitement in living. Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States
Often attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt without an original source in her writings, for example in the introduction to It Seems to Me : Selected Letters of Eleanor Roosevelt (2001) by Leonard C. Schlup and Donald W. Whisenhunt, p. 2 http://books.google.com/books?id=UeFWjTMcLZYC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q&f=false. But archivists have not been able to find the quote in any of her writings, see the comment from Ralph Keyes in The Quote Verifier above. <br class="br">Disputed
“A quiet conscience makes one strong!”
Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary
The Diary of a Young Girl
Galileo Galilei book Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
Loose paraphrase of Salviati on Day 3 http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/galileo/dialogue3.html: "For when the sun draws up some vapors here, or warms a plant there, it draws these and warms this as if it had nothing else to do. Even in ripening a bunch of grapes, or perhaps just a single grape, it applies itself so effectively that it could not do more even if the goal of all its affairs were just the ripening of this one grape." <br class="br">Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632)
“Those who are possessed by nothing possess everything.”
Morihei Ueshiba (1883–1969) founder of aikido
The Art of Peace (1992)
“If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.”
Moshe Dayan (1915–1981) Israeli military leader and politician
As quoted in Newsweek (17 October 1977)
“Virtue alone affords everlasting and peace-giving joy”
Sola virtus praestat gaudium perpetuum, securum; etiam si quid obstat, nubium modo intervenit, quae infra feruntur nec umquam diem vincunt.
Seneca the Younger (-4–65 BC) Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist
Letter XXVII
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius)
Context: Virtue alone affords everlasting and peace-giving joy; even if some obstacle arise, it is but like an intervening cloud, which floats beneath the sun but never prevails against it.
“Life is to be lived, not controlled.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
“War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.”
Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German novelist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate
As quoted in This I Believe (1954), by Edward R. Murrow, p. 16
Variant: War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.
Source: This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of One Hundred Thoughtful Men and Women
“If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace”
Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist
The Crisis No. I.
1770s, The American Crisis (1776–1783)
Context: I once felt all that kind of anger, which a man ought to feel, against the mean principles that are held by the Tories: a noted one, who kept a tavern at Amboy, was standing at his door], with as pretty a child in his hand, about eight or nine years old, as I ever saw, and after speaking his mind as freely as he thought was prudent, finished with this unfatherly expression, "Well! give me [[peace in my day."
Not a man lives on the continent but fully believes that a separation must some time or other finally take place, and a generous parent should have said, "If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace;" and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty.
Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)
Matthieu Ricard (1946) French writer and Buddhist monk
Source: Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill
“If we surrendered
to earth's intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.”
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian poet and writer
Source: Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God
“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”
John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author
These are paraphrases of Muir's quote from My First Summer in the Sierra (1911) - the actual quote is listed above: "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." See Sierra Club explanation http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/misquotes.aspx. <br class="br">Misattributed <br class="br">Variant: Tug on anything at all and you'll find it connected to everything else in the universe. <br class="br">Variant: When we tug at a single thing in nature, we find it attached to the rest of the world.
“Going to the mountains is going home.”
John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author
"In the Sierra Forests", San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin (part 3 of the 11 part series "Summering in the Sierra") dated July 1875, published 3 August 1875; reprinted in John Muir: Summering in the Sierra, edited by Robert Engberg (University of Wisconsin Press, 1984) page 79
1870s
Variant: Going to the woods is going home.
“If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter
As quoted in Guitar Player (1 August 2004), and in "Pax Patter" at ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) http://www.abc.net.au/civics/rights/pax.htm <br class="br">Variant: When we say "War is over if you want it," we mean that if everyone demanded peace instead of another TV set, we'd have peace.
Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French-German physician, theologian, musician and philosopher
Variant translation: Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace.
Variant translation: Until we extend the circle of compassion to all living things, we will not ourselves find peace.
Kulturphilosophie (1923)
“The next message you need is always right where you are.”
Ram Dass (1931–2019) American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the 1971 book Be Here Now
“There’s no war that will end all wars.”
Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore
Source: Kafka on the Shore (2002)
“Nature is pleased with simplicity. And nature is no dummy”
Isaac Newton (1643–1727) British physicist and mathematician and founder of modern classical physics
“A people free to choose will always choose peace.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)
Variant: A people free to choose will always choose peace
“I believe in God, only I spell it "Nature."”
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)
As quoted in Quote magazine (14 August 1966)
Source: Truth Against the World: Frank Lloyd Wright Speaks for an Organic Architecture
“Peace of mind comes from not wanting to change others.”
Gerald G. Jampolsky (1925) American writer and psychiatrist
Source: Love Is Letting Go of Fear
“An army of principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot”
Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist
1790s, Agrarian Justice (1797)
Source: Common Sense, The Rights of Man and Other Essential Writings
Context: An army of principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot; it will succeed where diplomatic management would fall: it is neither the Rhine, the Channel, nor the ocean that can arrest its progress: it will march on the horizon of the world, and it will conquer.
“no expectations, no disappointments!”
Eric Jerome Dickey (1961) American author
Sleeping with Strangers
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States
Voice of America broadcast (11 November 1951)
“If there is to be any peace it will come through being, not having.”
Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist
“All we are saying is give peace a chance!”
John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter
"Give Peace a Chance"
Lyrics
Variant: Give Peace a Chance.
“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English playwright and poet
Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer
Variant: The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.
Source: A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living
“I have decided to stick to love… Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
Source: A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches
“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)
“It is not peace that I seek, but life.”
Romain Rolland (1866–1944) French author
Ce n'est pas la paix que je cherche, c'est la vie.
Jean-Christophe (1904 - 1912), Journey's End: The Burning Bush (1911)
“First keep the peace within yourself, then you can also bring peace to others.”
Thomas à Kempis book The Imitation of Christ
Book II, ch. 3.
The Imitation of Christ (c. 1418)
“I still believe that peace and plenty and happiness can be worked out some way. I am a fool.”
Kurt Vonnegut book Jailbird
Source: Jailbird (1979), p. 14
“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”
Matka Tereza (1910–1997) Roman Catholic saint of Albanian origin
Mother Teresa Reflects on Working Toward Peace, ( essay, Santa Clara University, https://legacy.scu.edu/ethics/architects-of-peace/Teresa/essay.html retrieved August 2012). <br class="br">2010s
Pericles (-494–-429 BC) Greek statesman, orator, and general of Athens
As quoted in Flicker to Flame : Living with Purpose, Meaning, and Happiness (2006) by Jeffrey Thompson Parker, p. 118
This quotation is likely a modern paraphrasing of a longer passage from Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, II.43.3.
“Looking at beauty in the world, is the first step of purifying the mind.”
Amit Ray (1960) Indian author
Meditation:Insights and Inspirations (2010) https://books.google.com/books?id=s2ctBgAAQBAJ,
“There are no more worlds to conquer!”
Alexander the Great (-356–-323 BC) King of Macedon
Statement portrayed as a quotation in a 1927 Reader's Digest article, this probably derives from traditions about Alexander lamenting at his father Philip's victories that there would be no conquests left for him, or that after his conquests in Egypt and Asia there were no worlds left to conquer. <br class="br">Some of the oldest accounts of this, as quoted by John Calvin state that on "hearing that there were other worlds, wept that he had not yet conquered one." <br class="br">This may originate from Plutarch's essay On the Tranquility of Mind, part of the essays Moralia: Alexander wept when he heard Anaxarchus discourse about an infinite number of worlds, and when his friends inquired what ailed him, "Is it not worthy of tears," he said, "that, when the number of worlds is infinite, we have not yet become lords of a single one?" <br class="br">There are no more other worlds to conquer! <br class="br">Variant attributed as his "last words" at a few sites on the internet, but in no published sources. <br class="br">Disputed <br class="br">Source: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/De_tranquillitate_animi*.html
“We see the world not as it is, but as we are.”
Lois McMaster Bujold The Sharing Knife
Dag Redwing hickory Bluefield
Passage (Vol. III in Tetralogy) (2008), p. 163
The Sharing Knife, Passage (Vol. III in Tetralogy) (2008)
“None of it is important or all of it is.”
John Steinbeck book The Log from the Sea of Cortez
Introduction
The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951)
Context: "... Let us go," we said, "into the Sea of Cortez, realizing that we become forever a part of it; that our rubber boots slogging through a flat of eel-grass, that the rocks we turn over in a tide pool, make us truly and permanently a factor in the ecology of the region. We shall take something away from it, but we shall leave something too." And if we seem a small factor in a huge pattern, nevertheless it is of relative importance. We take a tiny colony of soft corals from a rock in a little water world. And that isn't terribly important to the tide pool. Fifty miles away the Japanese shrimp boats are dredging with overlapping scoops, bringing up tons of shrimps, rapidly destroying the species so that it may never come back, and with the species destroying the ecological balance of the whole region. That isn't very important in the world. And thousands of miles away the great bombs are falling and the stars are not moved thereby. None of it is important or all of it is.
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/896523357272911872 Speaking via twitter on August 13, 2017 in response to the 2017 Unite the Right rally in harlottesville, Virginia and quoting Nelson Mandela. Archived via Wayback Machine on August 14, 2017 https://web.archive.org/web/20170814133749/https:/twitter.com/BarackObama/status/896523357272911872. Source: Bipartisan condemnation for 'Unite the Right' rally by CNN's Jennifer Hansler on August 13, 2017 http://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/12/politics/parties-condemn-white-nationalist-rally/index.html. Archived via Wayback Machine on August 14, 2017 https://web.archive.org/web/20170814134330/http://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/12/politics/parties-condemn-white-nationalist-rally/index.html. <br class="br">2017 <br class="br">Variant: Madiba reminds us that: “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
'Where Do We Go From Here?" as published in Where Do We Go from Here : Chaos or Community? (1967), p. 62; many statements in this book, or slight variants of them, were also part of his address Where Do We Go From Here?" which has a section below. A common variant appearing at least as early as 1968 has "Returning violence for violence multiplies violence..." An early version of the speech as published in A Martin Luther King Treasury (1964), p. 173, has : "Returning hate for hate multiplies hate..."
1960s
Context: 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 liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. … Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. ”
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States