1770s, "Give me liberty, or give me death!" (1775)
Context: It is vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, peace! But there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
Disputed, Give me liberty, or give me death! (1775)
Post-Presidency, Nobel lecture (2002)
Source: The Nobel Peace Prize Lecture
"Richard Cole, 103, Last Survivor of Doolittle Raid on Japan, Dies" in The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/09/obituaries/richard-cole-dead.html (9 April 2019)
“Evil will never find peace. It may triumph, but it will never find peace.”
Source: The Awakening
Remarks by President Obama and Mrs. Obama in Town Hall with Youth of Northern Ireland, Belfast Waterfront, Belfast, Northern Ireland (17 June 2013)
2013
“There may be Peace without Joy, and Joy without Peace, but the two combined make Happiness.”
Pilgrim's Way (1940), p. 117
Memory Hold-The-Door (1940)
The Pathway of Peace (1923)
Context: There is no path to peace except as the will of peoples may open to it. The way of peace is through agreement, not through force. The question then is not of any ambitious scheme to prevent war, but simply of the constant effort, which is the highest task of statesmanship in relation to every possible cause of strife, to diminish a people's disposition to resort to force and to find a just and reasonable basis for accord. If the energy, ability, and sagacity equal to that now devoted to preparation for war could be concentrated upon such efforts aided by the urgent demands of an intelligent public opinion, addressed not to impossibilities but to the removal or adjustment of actual differences, we should make a sure approach to our goal.
“Peace is the best thing that man may know; peace alone is better than a thousand triumphs”
Pax optima rerum
quas homini novisse datum est, pax una triumphis
innumeris potior, pax custodire salutem
et civis aequare potens revocetur in arcis
tandem Sidonias, et fama fugetur ab urbe
perfidiae, Phoenissa, tua.
Book XI, lines 592–597<!--; spoken by Hanno.-->
Punica
Context: Peace is the best thing that man may know; peace alone is better than a thousand triumphs; peace has power to guard our lives and secure equality among fellow-citizens. Let us then after so long recall peace to the city of Carthage, and banish the reproach of treachery from Dido's city.
"Non-Violence — The Greatest Force" in The World Tomorrow (5 October 1926)
1920s
Context: The cry for peace will be a cry in the wilderness, so long as the spirit of nonviolence does not dominate millions of men and women.
An armed conflict between nations horrifies us. But the economic war is no better than an armed conflict. This is like a surgical operation. An economic war is prolonged torture. And its ravages are no less terrible than those depicted in the literature on war properly so called. We think nothing of the other because we are used to its deadly effects. …
The movement against war is sound. I pray for its success. But I cannot help the gnawing fear that the movement will fail if it does not touch the root of all evil — man's greed.
