“In a world built on violence, one must be a revolutionary before one can be a pacifist.”

As quoted in American Power and the New Mandarins (2002) by Noam Chomsky, p. 160.

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A. J. Muste12

Christian pacifist and civil rights activist 1885–1967

Jack Donovan (1974) American activist, editor and writer

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Scott Nearing (1883–1983) American activist

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“But I knew the truth and that's why I was so sad. Every moment before this one depends on this one. Everything in the history of the world can be proven wrong in one moment.”

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“A goal can only be reached if the means are in consonance with its essential nature. One will never attain non-violence through violence.”

Gustav Landauer (1870–1919) German anarchist

Letter from Landauer to Martin Buber 1901, quoted in Martin Buber's Life and Work, vol. I by M. Friedman 1981, p. 251

“In this world of turmoil, I still believe in one thing strongly and that’s the flag and everything our country was built on.”

Tyler Eifert (1990) American football player, tight end

Why I Stand https://medium.com/@tylereifert/whyistand-95bbe57a2436 (September 9, 2017)

“Spiritual revolutionaries must be committed not to what is easiest, but to what is most beneficial to themselves and the world.”

Noah Levine (1971) American Buddhist teacher

Against the Stream (2007)

“One must care about a world one will not see.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

Attributed to Russell in The Wordsworth Dictionary of Quotations (1997), p. 450, and in Robertson's Dictionary of Quotations (1998), p. 362, but no specific source is given.
Disputed

“We live in a universe ruled by very few laws, but the redoubling of violence by violence is one of the main ones.”

Kim Stanley Robinson book The Years of Rice and Salt

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“In a world built on violence, one must be a revolutionary before one can be a pacifist.”

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A. J. Muste12

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