Quotes about peace page 9
“A feeling is not bottomless. once felt all the way through, a great peace greets you there”
Alanis Morissette (1974) Canadian-American singer-songwriter
“Let the peace of this day be here tomorrow when I wake up.”
Thomas Pynchon book Gravity's Rainbow
Source: Gravity's Rainbow
Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) Yogi, a guru of Kriya Yoga and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship
“Damn real live people, getting in the way of peaceful ideals.”
John Scalzi book Old Man's War
Source: Old Man's War
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1960s, How Long, Not Long (1965)
Context: I must admit to you that there are still jail cells waiting for us, and dark and difficult moments. But if we will go on with the faith that nonviolence and its power can transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows, we will be able to change all of these conditions. And so I plead with you this afternoon as we go ahead: remain committed to nonviolence. Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate the white man, but to win his friendship and understanding. We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience. And that will be a day not of the white man, not of the black man. That will be the day of man as man.
“Running is about finding your inner peace, and so is a life well lived.”
Dean Karnazes (1962) American distance runner
“The moral dilemma is to make peace with the unacceptable”
May Sarton (1912–1995) American poet, novelist, and memoirist
“Yes, hope is a strange thing. Peace at last. But at what price?”
Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner
Source: The Kite Runner
“It is not enough to live together in peace, with one race on its knees.”
Daniel H. Wilson book Robopocalypse
Source: Robopocalypse
“I took a speed reading course and read 'War and Peace' in twenty minutes. It involves Russia.”
Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician
Dorothy Dunnett (1923–2001) British writer
Source: Queens' Play
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797–1851) English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer
Source: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Alice Borchardt (1939–2007) American fiction writer
Source: The Raven Warrior
“I could die in peace, I think, if the world was beautiful. To know it's being ruined is hard.”
Wendell Berry (1934) author
Source: Jayber Crow
“Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
“It is better to be small, colorful, sexy, careless, and peaceful…”
Tom Robbins book Jitterbug Perfume
Source: Jitterbug Perfume
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1950s, Three Ways of Meeting Oppression (1958)
Source: A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches
Context: A second way that oppressed people sometimes deal with oppression is to resort to physical violence and corroding hatred. Violence often brings about momentary results. Nations have frequently won their independence in battle. But in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem; it merely creates new and more complicated ones.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926–2004) American psychiatrist
On Death and Dying (1969)
Walt Whitman book Fulles d'herba
The Sleepers, 7
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Source: Leaves of Grass
Dave Eggers book Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever?
Source: Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever?
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)
“Deep experience is never peaceful.”
Henry James (1843–1916) American novelist, short story author, and literary critic
de Mauves http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/mauve10.txtMadame, Galaxy Magazine (February/March 1874), ch. V, reprinted in A Passionate Pilgrim (1875) and later in The Madonna of the Future and Other Tales (1879) and the New York Edition of James' works, vol. 13 (1908).
“The hippies wanted peace and love. We wanted Ferraris, blondes and switchblades.”
Alice Cooper (1948) American rock singer, songwriter and musician
“It is my conviction that there is no way to peace - peace is the way.”
Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist
Source: The Art of Power
“Shadows are cool and peaceful places for those whose minds are overstocked with treasure.”
Eva Ibbotson book A Countess Below Stairs
Source: A Countess Below Stairs
“Make no mistake: peaceful madmen are ahead of the future.”
Gabriel García Márquez book Memories of My Melancholy Whores
Source: Memories of My Melancholy Whores
“I'm really a peaceful sort of coward.”
L.A. Meyer (1942–2014) American writer
“Begging your pardon, sir…. One population can't make peace with another by force.”
Gregory Maguire book Son of a Witch
Source: Son of a Witch
William Blake Songs of Innocence and of Experience
The Divine Image, st. 1
1780s, Songs of Innocence (1789–1790)
Source: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
“Some must be warriors, that others may live in peace.”
Mercedes Lackey book Exile's Honor
Source: Exile's Honor
Upamanyu Chatterjee (1959) Indian writer
Source: English, August: An Indian Story
“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Self-Reliance
Source: Ralph Waldo Emerson on Self Reliance
Helene Hanff (1916–1997) Screenwriter, writer
Source: Q's Legacy: A Delightful Account of a Lifelong Love Affair with Books
Paulo Coelho book Manuscript Found in Accra
Variant: What is success? It is being able to go to bed each night with your soul at peace
Source: Manuscript Found in Accra
Milan Kundera (1929–2023) Czech author of Czech and French literature
As quoted in The Canine Hiker's Bible (2000) by Doug Gelbert, p. 8
“there is no path to peace, but peace itself is the path.”
Richard Rohr (1943) American spiritual writer, speaker, teacher, Catholic Franciscan priest
Source: Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality
Gerald G. Jampolsky (1925) American writer and psychiatrist
Source: Love Is Letting Go of Fear
“Evil will never find peace. It may triumph, but it will never find peace.”
L.J. Smith (1965) American author
Source: The Awakening
“Peace is our gift to each other.”
Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor
Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer
Source: The Law of Divine Compensation: On Work, Money, and Miracles
“Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.”
Jack Kornfield (1945) American writer
Source: Buddha's Little Instruction Book
“Peace is joy at rest. Joy is peace on its feet.”
Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist
“You have peace," the old woman said, "when you make it with yourself.”
Mitch Albom book The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author
Source: Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential
“You cannot find peace by avoiding life, Leonard.”
Michael Cunningham book The Hours
Variant: You cannot find peace by avoiding life.
Source: The Hours
“Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations… entangling alliances with none”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America
1800s, First Inaugural Address (1801)
Context: Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against antirepublican tendencies; the preservation of the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the right of election by the people -- a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism; a well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war till regulars may relieve them; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority; economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly burthened; the honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid; the diffusion of information and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public reason; freedom of religion; freedom of the press, and freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus, and trial by juries impartially selected. These principles
Context: About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise of duties which comprehend everything dear and valuable to you, it is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our Government, and consequently those which ought to shape its Administration. I will compress them within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the general principle, but not all its limitations. Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against antirepublican tendencies; the preservation of the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the right of election by the people -- a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism; a well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war till regulars may relieve them; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority; economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly burthened; the honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid; the diffusion of information and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public reason; freedom of religion; freedom of the press, and freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus, and trial by juries impartially selected. These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety.
Julie Anne Peters (1952) American writer
Source: By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead