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

— A. J. Muste

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

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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A. J. Muste 12

Christian pacifist and civil rights activist 1885–1967

Jack Donovan (1974) American activist, editor and writer

Violence is Golden
A Sky Without Eagles (2014)

“I am a pacifist in that I believe that no man has a right to do violence to any other man.”

Scott Nearing (1883–1983) American activist

The Trial of Scott Nearing and The American Socialist Society https://archive.org/details/trialofscottnear00neariala (1919)
Context: Q: You are a pacifist even to class struggles?
[Nearing]: I am a pacifist in that I believe that no man has a right to do violence to any other man.
Q: Even in the class struggle?
[Nearing]: Under no circumstances.

“From the changes that have occurred in the world, there must be drawn correct, revolutionary, Marxist-Leninist conclusions: there must be drawn such conclusions as not to create reformist and pacifist illusions and weaken the struggle against imperialism, but to strengthen ever more this just struggle: there must be drawn such conclusions as not to alienate the peoples from the cause of revolution, but bring them ever closer to it, not divert them from the struggle for their national liberation, but raise this struggle to an ever higher level.”

Enver Hoxha (1908–1985) the Communist leader of Albania from 1944 until his death in 1985, as the First Secretary of the Party of L…

Speeches, 20th Party Anniversary Address

“The bridge was built by someone who was willing to come into my world and take me into this one.”

Thomas McKean (1734–1817) American politician (1734-1817)

Autistic Writer Finds Voice, Delivers a Message of Hope

“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.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

“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

Book 3: "Ocean Continents"
The Years of Rice and Salt (2002)

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

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