Quotes about violence
page 16

Hannah Arendt photo

“In a head-on clash between violence and power, the outcome is hardly in doubt. Nowhere is the self-defeating factor in the victory of violence over power more evident than in the use of terror to maintain domination, about whose weird successes and eventual failures we know perhaps more than any generation before us. Violence can destroy power; it is utterly incapable of creating it.”

On the subject violence and power. Source: On Violence, published in 1970. As quoted by Scroll Staff (December 04, 2017): Ideas in literature: Ten things Hannah Arendt said that are eerily relevant in today’s political times https://web.archive.org/web/20191001213756/https://scroll.in/article/856549/ten-things-hannah-arendt-said-that-are-eerily-relevant-in-todays-political-times. In: Scroll.in. Archived from the original https://scroll.in/article/856549/ten-things-hannah-arendt-said-that-are-eerily-relevant-in-todays-political-times on October 1, 2019.

Gustav Landauer photo

“Now it can become clear to man that freedom and peace of the nations can only come when as Jesus and his followers, and in our time above all Tolstoi advised, they choose to fully abstain from any violence.”

Gustav Landauer (1870–1919) German anarchist

Letter from Landauer to Martin Buber 1914, quoted in Martin Buber's Life and Work, vol. I by M. Friedman 1981, pp. 251-252

Gustav Landauer photo

“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

Johann Gottlieb Fichte photo
Imran Khan photo
Edward Bellamy photo
Anders Behring Breivik photo

“None of these authors have advocated violence. But their warnings of impending Islamic takeover – a concept that is widely dismissed as implausible in conventional scholarly and political circles – sometimes carry an urgency that might seem to invite angry responses.”

Anders Behring Breivik (1979) Norwegian mass murderer

Doug Saunders, ‘Eurabia’ opponents scramble for distance from anti-Muslim murderer[11 http://dougsaunders.net/2011/07/norway-breivik-geert-wilders-mark-steyn-bruce-bawer/], the Globe and Mail, 2011-07-26 ;
Other

John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher photo

“The Essence of War is Violence. Moderation in War is Imbecility.”

John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) Royal Navy admiral of the fleet

p. 75. https://archive.org/stream/cu31924027924509#page/n104/mode/1up
Records (1919) https://archive.org/stream/cu31924027924509#page/n0/mode/1up

Harun Yahya photo
Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma photo
Rajinikanth photo
Allen West (politician) photo
Alfred Rosenberg photo
Kancha Ilaiah photo
Jimmy Carter photo

“Sometimes we try to justify this unsavory business on the cynical ground that by rationing out the means of violence we can somehow control the world’s violence. The fact is that we cannot have it both ways. Can we be both the world’s leading champion of peace and the world’s leading supplier of the weapons of war?”

Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)

"A Community of the Free" address at the The Foreign Policy Association NY, NY (23 June 1976); this is often paraphrased: We cannot be both the world’s leading champion of peace and the world’s leading supplier of the weapons of war.
Pre-Presidency

Jamelle Bouie photo
Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Pierce Brown photo
Steven Pinker photo

“On the contrary, violence is often caused by a surfeit of morality and justice, at least as they are conceived in the minds of the perpetrators.”

Steven Pinker (1954) psychologist, linguist, author

p 139
The Better Angels of our Nature (2011)

Simone de Beauvoir photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“On this black asphalt of violence, drugs turn your son into a walking corpse and your daughter into a merchantilistic prostitute!”

Luiz Carlos Alborghetti (1945–2009) Italian-Brazilian radio commenter, showman and political figure

Original: (pt) Neste asfalto negro de violência, as drogas transformam seu filho num cadáver ambulante e sua filha numa prostituta mercantilista!
Original: (pt) Source: [9 December 2009, Morre Luiz Carlos Alborghetti, dono do bordão 'bandido bom é bandido morto', https://extra.globo.com/tv-e-lazer/morre-luiz-carlos-alborghetti-dono-do-bordao-bandido-bom-bandido-morto-209786.html, Portuguese, Extra, Editora Globo S/A, 31 March 2019]

Michel Henry photo
Dietrich Bonhoeffer photo
Dietrich Bonhoeffer photo
Dietrich Bonhoeffer photo
Noam Chomsky photo

“Non-violent resistance activities cannot succeed against an enemy that is able freely to use violence. That's pretty obvious. You can't have non-violent resistance against the Nazis in a concentration camp, to take an extreme case...”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Chronicles of Dissent, December 13, 1989 https://web.archive.org/web/20000829081348/http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/interviews/db-8912.html
Quotes 1960s–1980s, 1980s

Wendell Berry photo
Gianni Vattimo photo
Arnab Goswami photo

“Congress leaders have been intimidating me and threatening me with physical violence. I am deeply grateful that the Supreme Court has noted the violence against me and my wife.”

Arnab Goswami (1973) Indian news anchor

https://www.opindia.com/2020/04/arnab-goswami-grateful-supreme-court-interim-protection-congress-fir/ https://www.aninews.in/news/national/general-news/grateful-to-sc-for-upholding-constitutional-right-to-report-broadcast-arnab-goswami20200424155249/ https://www.newsx.com/national/arnab-goswami-deeply-grateful-to-sc-for-defending-his-freedom-of-expression-says-congress-filed-over-150-firs-to-intimidate-him.html

“Between friends and enemies, there is no question of freedom, only violence and subjugation. This is the reality of politics, a reality that liberals often do not dare to face.”

Jiang Shigong (1967) Chinese legal and political theorist

《乌克兰宪政危机与政治决断》 ["Ukraine's constitutional crisis and political decisions"] (2004), translated by David Ownby in Rethinking China's Rise, p. 27

“It's nonsense to talk about the war on Islamic terrorism as a clash of civilisations. The distinction is between civilisation and chaos. Whatever people may claim - and the desire to cut through the political processes can be very powerful - there is never any justification for violence.”

Michael Burleigh (1955) American historian and writer

As quoted in “Michael Burleigh: The reluctant guru,” John Crace, The Guardian, March 10, 2008 https://www.theguardian.com/education/2008/mar/11/academicexperts.highereducationprofile

Arundhati Roy photo
Ibn Hazm photo
Rand Paul photo

“I don't think either one of them literally want to incite violence. But they have to realize that when they tell people to get up in your face, that there are some crazy unstable people out there. There are truly people who have anger issues. The guy that shot over two hundred rounds from a semi-automatic weapon at us at the ballfield, was an angry guy. He was a guy that would go down to the city council and yell and scream and get angry and red in the face. He once hit a neighbor with the butt of his gun. He had all of these anger issues. But then when people stoke that and say "get up in their face", "go to Washington."”

Rand Paul (1963) American politician, ophthalmologist, and United States Senator from Kentucky

He showed up at the ballfield that day, and as he started shooting at us he yelled "This is for healthcare!", and then when they were finally able to kill him in his pocket was a list of five or six conservative republicans that he came there intending to kill. So instead of saying "get up in their face", we should say let's have constructive dialog. Let's forcefully present our position in a verbal way and in an intellectual way.
2018-10-10
Rand Paul: There Will Be an 'Assassination' If Left Doesn't Ratchet Down the Rhetoric
Discussion on Fox and Friends
http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/10/10/rand-paul-there-will-be-assassination-if-left-doesnt-ratchet-down-rhetoric https://video.foxnews.com/v/5847225479001/?#sp=show-clips

Steven Best photo
Sara Ahmed photo

“The exposure of violence is perceived by the privileged as the origin of violence.”

Sara Ahmed (1969) Australian and British academic

Source: "An Affinity of Hammers" (2016), p. 28

Dorothy Thompson photo

“A continually reaffirmed thesis of communism is that its objectives cannot be realized without ruthless violence nor within the framework of a constitutional order.”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

Source: "Let the Record Speak" 1939, “The Truth about Communism” https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015051180423&view=1up&seq=5 (1948), pp. 14-15

Enoch Powell photo

“One of the most dangerous words is 'extremist'. A person who commits acts of violence is not an 'extremist'; he is a criminal. If he commits those acts of violence with the object of detaching part of the territory of the United Kingdom and attaching it to a foreign country, he is an enemy under arms. There is the world of difference between a citizen who commits a crime, in the belief, however mistaken, that he is thereby helping to preserve the integrity of his country and his right to remain a subject of his sovereign, and a person, be he citizen or alien, who commits a crime with the intention of destroying that integrity and rendering impossible that allegiance. The former breaches the peace; the latter is executing an act of war. The use of the word 'extremist' of either or both conveys a dangerous untruth: it implies that both hold acceptable opinions and seek permissible ends, only that they carry them to 'extremes'. Not so: the one is a lawbreaker; the other is an enemy.The same purpose, that of rendering friend and foe indistinguishable, is achieved by references to the 'impartiality' of the British troops and to their function as 'keeping the peace.'”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

The British forces are in Northern Ireland because an avowed enemy is using force of arms to break down lawful authority in the province and thereby seize control. The army cannot be 'impartial' towards an enemy, nor between the aggressor and the aggressed: they are not glorified policemen, restraining two sets of citizens who might otherwise do one another harm, and duty bound to show no 'partiality' towards one lawbreaker rather than another. They are engaged in defeating an armed attack upon the state. Once again, the terminology is designed to obliterate the vital difference between friend and enemy, loyal and disloyal.</p><p>Then there are the 'no-go' areas which have existed for the past eighteen months. It would be incredible, if it had not actually happened, that for a year and a half there should be areas in the United Kingdom where the Queen's writ does not run and where the citizen is protected, if protected at all, by persons and powers unknown to the law. If these areas were described as what they are—namely, pockets of territory occupied by the enemy, as surely as if they had been captured and held by parachute troops—then perhaps it would be realised how preposterous is the situation. In fact the policy of refraining from the re-establishment of civil government in these areas is as wise as it would be to leave enemy posts undisturbed behind one's lines.</p>
Source: Speech to the South Buckinghamshire Conservative Women's Annual Luncheon in Beaconsfield (19 March 1971), from Reflections of a Statesman. The Writings and Speeches of Enoch Powell (1991), pp. 487-488

Enoch Powell photo

“Have you ever wondered, perhaps, why opinions which the majority of people quite naturally hold are, if anyone dares express them publicly, denounced as 'controversial, 'extremist', 'explosive', 'disgraceful', and overwhelmed with a violence and venom quite unknown to debate on mere political issues? It is because the whole power of the aggressor depends upon preventing people from seeing what is happening and from saying what they see.The most perfect, and the most dangerous, example of this process is the subject miscalled, and deliberately miscalled, 'race.'”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

The people of this country are told that they must feel neither alarm nor objection to a West Indian, African and Asian population which will rise to several millions being introduced into this country. If they do, they are 'prejudiced', 'racialist'... A current situation, and a future prospect, which only a few years ago would have appeared to everyone not merely intolerable but frankly incredible, has to be represented as if welcomed by all rational and right-thinking people. The public are literally made to say that black is white. Newspapers like the Sunday Times denounce it as 'spouting the fantasies of racial purity' to say that a child born of English parents in Peking is not Chinese but English, or that a child born of Indian parents in Birmingham is not English but Indian. It is even heresy to assert the plain fact that the English are a white nation. Whether those who take part know it or not, this process of brainwashing by repetition of manifest absurdities is a sinister and deadly weapon. In the end, it renders the majority, who are marked down to be the victims of violence or revolution or tyranny, incapable of self-defence by depriving them of their wits and convincing them that what they thought was right is wrong. The process has already gone perilously far, when political parties at a general election dare not discuss a subject which results from and depends on political action and which for millions of electors transcends all others in importance; or when party leaders can be mesmerised into accepting from the enemy the slogans of 'racialist' and 'unChristian' and applying them to lifelong political colleagues...</p><p>In the universities, we are told that education and the discipline ought to be determined by the students, and that the representatives of the students ought effectively to manage the institutions. This is nonsense—manifest, arrant nonsense; but it is nonsense which it is already obligatory for academics and journalists, politicians and parties, to accept and mouth upon pain of verbal denunciation and physical duress.</p><p>We are told that the economic achievement of the Western countries has been at the expense of the rest of the world and has impoverished them, so that what are called the 'developed' countries owe a duty to hand over tax-produced 'aid' to the governments of the undeveloped countries. It is nonsense—manifest, arrant nonsense; but it is nonsense with which the people of the Western countries, clergy and laity, but clergy especially—have been so deluged and saturated that in the end they feel ashamed of what the brains and energy of Western mankind have done, and sink on their knees to apologise for being civilised and ask to be insulted and humiliated.</p><p>Then there is the 'civil rights' nonsense. In Ulster we are told that the deliberate destruction by fire and riot of areas of ordinary property is due to the dissatisfaction over allocation of council houses and opportunities for employment. It is nonsense—manifest, arrant nonsense; but that has not prevented the Parliament and government of the United Kingdom from undermining the morale of civil government in Northern Ireland by imputing to it the blame for anarchy and violence.</p><p>Most cynically of all, we are told, and told by bishops forsooth, that communist countries are the upholders of human rights and guardians of individual liberty, but that large numbers of people in this country would be outraged by the spectacle of cricket matches being played here against South Africans. It is nonsense—manifest, arrant nonsense; but that did not prevent a British Prime Minister and a British Home Secretary from adopting it as acknowledged fact.</p>
Source: The "enemy within" speech during the 1970 general election campaign; speech to the Turves Green Girls School, Northfield, Birmingham (13 June 1970), from Still to Decide (1972), pp. 36-37

Robert Walpole photo

“The most unrighteous judgment was passed upon me in the House that was ever heard of...against the most positive evidence that it was possible in any case to give. ... I am made a sacrifice to the violence of a party and entirely innocent.”

Robert Walpole (1676–1745) British statesman

Source: Letter https://historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1690-1715/member/walpole-robert-ii-1676-1745 (c. January 1712). On 17 January 1712 the case against Walpole for bribery was heard in the House of Commons and he was voted by a majority of more than 50 to have been guilty of "a high breach of trust and notorious corruption". By further votes he was committed to the Tower of London and expelled from the Commons.

Bruno Heller photo
Alfred Denning, Baron Denning photo
John Strachey photo
Andy Ngo photo

“The word ‘violence’ is being systematically remade to conform to their worldview. Looting and arson aren’t violence, they argue. And yet physical violence directed at their opponents is also not violence but rather ‘self-defense.’”

Andy Ngo (1986) American conservative journalist and social‐media personality

Source: Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy (2021), p. 17

“What's more American than violence?”

Hayduke wanted to know. "Violence, it's as American as pizza pie.
The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975)

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar photo

“The Communists say that there are the only two means of establishing communism. The first is violence. Nothing short of it will suffice to break up the existing system. The other is dictatorship of the proletariat. Nothing short of it will suffice to continue the new system.”

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956) Father of republic India, champion of human rights, father of India's Constitution, polymath, revolutionary…

On Communism, Thoughts of Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar https://books.google.com/books?id=6nolAQAAIAAJ, p. 107

David Cay Johnston photo

“Revenge is the philosophy of dictators and mob bosses... used to keep others in line with threats of economic ruin, violence, or worse.”

David Cay Johnston (1948) Investigative journalist and author

It's Even Worse Than You Think (2018)

“We are encouraged to think of acts of police violence more or less in isolation, to consider them as unique, unrelated occurrences. We ask ourselves always, “What went wrong?””

Kristian Williams (1974) American historian

and for answers we look to the seconds, minutes, or hours before the incident. Perhaps this leads us to fault the individual officer, perhaps it leads us to excuse him. Such thinking, derived as it is from legal reasoning, does not take us far beyond the case in question. And thus, such inquiries are rarely very illuminating. The shooting of Oscar Grant, the beating of Rodney King, the arrest of Marquette Frye, the killing of Arthur McDuffie — any of these may be explained in terms of the actions and attitudes of the particular officers at the scene, the events preceding the violence (including the actions of the victims), and the circumstances in which the officers found themselves. Indeed, juries and police administrators have frequently found it possible to excuse police violence with such explanations. The unrest that followed these incidents, however, cannot be explained in such narrow terms. To understand the rioting, one must consider a whole range of related issues, including the conditions of life in the Black community, the role of the police in relation to that community, and the history and pattern of similar abuses. If we are to understand the phenomenon of police brutality, we must get beyond particular cases. We can better understand the actions of individual police officers if we understand the institution of which they are a part. That institution, in turn, can best be examined if we have an understanding of its origins, its social function, and its relation to larger systems like capitalism and white supremacy.
Rights, riots and police brutality, 2020

Sam Peckinpah photo
John Bosco photo

“Not with violence, but with words.”

John Bosco (1815–1888) Italian Roman Catholic priest, educator and writer
Joe Biden photo

“We will not shy away from engaging in the hard work to take on the damaging legacy of slavery and our treatment of Native Americans, or from doing the daily work of addressing systemic racism and violence against Black, Native, Latino, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and other communities of color.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

21 March 2021 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/21/statement-by-president-biden-on-the-international-day-for-the-elimination-of-racial-discrimination/
2021, March 2021

Neal Stephenson photo

“If history was any guide, those best at violence might end up ruling over everyone else.”

“Five Thousand Years Later” (p. 684)
Seveneves (2015), Part Three

Prevale photo

“In this world where selfishness and violence make noise, we value love.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) In questo mondo dove egoismo e violenza fanno rumore, diamo valore all'amore.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“One who practices psychological violence against others is usually a devious, damned cowardly and disgustingly treacherous person.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Colui che pratica violenza psicologica contro gli altri di solito è una persona subdola, dannatamente codarda e disgustosamente infida.
Source: prevale.net

Benjamin Creme photo
Robert Charles Wilson photo

“Violence is the great attractor of human history.”

Robert Charles Wilson (1953) author

Source: Burning Paradise (2013), Chapter 29 (p. 278)

Justine Greening photo

“Women and children are vulnerable to brutal violence and some have lost everything... We cannot ignore what is happening to the Syrian people.”

Justine Greening (1969) British politician

Syria conflict: UK pledges extra £100m https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25743571 BBC News (15 January 2014)
2014

Steve Dillon photo
Osamu Tezuka photo

“I wish that all the ills of society - conformism, laziness, indolence, betrayal, violence, lust, rape - and especially the evils of politics will be represented in the form of an absolute depravity.”

From the Afterword to April 1978 MW , vol. 3, translation by Francesco Nicodemus, Hazard Editions, Milan, 2005, p. 193. ISBN 887502037X

Opal Tometi photo

“I was interested in giving folks like black, poor people who’ve been marginalized, brutalized, an opportunity to have more visibility. Before seven years ago, we could barely get the news to talk about police violence, let alone police death.”

Opal Tometi (1984) Nigerian–American writer, strategist and community organizer

How the movement that’s changing America was built and where it goes next, By Jamil Smith, Rolling Stone, (16 June 2020)

Arundhati Roy photo

“Can the hungry go on a hunger strike? Non-violence is a piece of theatre. You need an audience. What can you do when you have no audience? People have the right to resist annihilation.”

Arundhati Roy (1961) Indian novelist, essayist

Arundhati Roy: They are trying to keep me destabilised. Anybody who says anything is in danger https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jun/05/arundhati-roy-keep-destabilised-danger, (5 June 2011)
Articles, Interviews

Charles Daniel Balvo photo

“It is very hard to promote and create a society with generations of people that all they have known is violence.”

Charles Daniel Balvo (1951) American archbishop

Nuncio to South Sudan Proposes a Path to Peace https://zenit.org/2014/02/20/nuncio-to-south-sudan-proposes-a-path-to-peace/ (February 20, 2014)

Sebastian Stan photo

“Violence has always been unfortunately embedded in masculinity, this alpha thing.”

Sebastian Stan (1982) Romanian-American actor

Quote

Mark Wahlberg photo

“It's weird; I've been to prison, I've seen the worst sort of violence and negative shit in the streets, but when it comes to putting my heart on the line and letting somebody get to know me in a relationship, it's very difficult.”

Mark Wahlberg (1971) American actor, television producer and rap musician

Source: Chris Heath, The making of Mark, The Observer, Sunday 27 February 2000 http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2000/feb/27/1

Basile Georges Casmoussa photo

“The only path to take to placate violence is dialogue. Only then will we be able to isolate these extremist groups and become a tolerant country. Now we must seek to be close to our small community and give ourselves strength and encouragement.”

Basile Georges Casmoussa (1938) Catholic bishop

Anti-Christian attacks in Iraq part of brutal strategy, says archbishop https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/17865/anti-christian-attacks-in-iraq-part-of-brutal-strategy-says-archbishop (30 November 2009)

Bill Maher photo

“Social justice warriors who are fond of governing by hashtag like to say that silence is violence. And we know that because it rhymes.”

Bill Maher (1956) American stand-up comedian

Source: Sen. Chris Coons and Caitlin Flanagan, Natural Immunity, (2021)

Chi­ma­man­da Ngo­zi Adi­chie photo
Jesmyn Ward photo

“What mires me in pessimism is the fact that so much of life is pain and sorrow and willful ignorance and violence, and pushing back against that tide takes so much effort, so much steady fight. It’s tiring.”

Jesmyn Ward (1977) American writer

Source: On having a pessimistic nature in “Jesmyn Ward: ‘So much of life is pain and sorrow and wilful ignorance’” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/nov/12/jesmyn-ward-sing-unburied-sing-interview-meet-author in The Guardian (2017 Nov 12)

Neo Masisi photo

“Gender-based Violence is not only a blatant violation of human rights, it has consequences for the victims, their families, and nations as a whole.”

Neo Masisi (1962) first lady of Botswana

Neo Masisi https://allafrica.com/stories/202012040594.html Botswana First Lady Neo Jane Masisi Speech delivered at the virtual launch of the W Summit Impact week 2020 (4 December 2020) Retrieved 5 November 2021.

Kiki Mordi photo

“Once we begin to see women as humans with as much right to occupy spaces as men. We would have removed the foundation upon which gender-based violence thrives.”

Kiki Mordi (1991) Nkiru "Kiki" Mordi is a Nigerian investigative journalist, media personality, filmmaker,writer and entrepreneur.

Source: https://quotes.ng/mobile/author.php?title=kiki-mordi&id=1159 Kiki Mordi speaking on gender equality

Prayut Chan-o-cha photo

“This law will be strictly enforced to prevent the type of nuisance and violence that happened in the past...It's not possible to have it all—happiness, equality, democracy—without giving us the tools.”

Prayut Chan-o-cha (1954) Thai military officer, junta chief, and politician

Law curbing public assembly takes effect in Thailand (13 August 2015)
Source: [Law curbing public assembly takes effect in Thailand, https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/law-curbing-public-assembly-takes-effect-in-thailand/, 14 August 2015, The Seattle Times, Associated Press, 13 August 2015, https://web.archive.org/web/20201128115005/https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/law-curbing-public-assembly-takes-effect-in-thailand/, 28 November 2020, live]

Donald J. Trump photo

“I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

2021, January 2021
Source: 12:13pm tweet https://archive.is/IvpaU on 6 January 2021

Douglas Murray photo

“Disagreement is not oppression. Argument is not assault. Words – even provocative or repugnant ones – are not violence. The answer to speech we do not like is more speech.”

Douglas Murray (1979) British political commentator and far-right activist

Source: The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity (2019)

Jack Vance photo

“There is no mystery about violence. It is the reflexive act of brutes, boors and moral defectives.”

Source: Night Lamp (1996), Chapter 3, section 1 (p. 37)

Jack Vance photo

“Except for a few special cases, title to every parcel of real property derives from an act of violence, more or less remote, and ownership is only as valid as the strength and will required to maintain it. That is the lesson of history, whether you like it or not.”

“The mourning of defeated peoples, while pathetic and tragic, is usually futile,” said Kelse.
Source: The Gray Prince (1975 [serialized 1974]), Chapter 16 (p. 159)

Andy Ngo photo

“Politicians in the city are terrified of political and media backlash for holding antifa and far-left protesters accountable. The local and national media are staunchly on the side of antifa, regardless of their violence against police and property.”

Andy Ngo (1986) American conservative journalist and social‐media personality

Source: Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy (2021), pp. 60-61

Robert B. Reich photo
Alexander De Croo photo

“Freedom of expression is one of the foundations of our society. Everyone is free to express their opinion. But our society will never accept indiscriminate violence, and even less towards our police forces.”

Alexander De Croo (1975) Belgian politician

Source: Alexander De Croo (2022) cited in: " Clashes as tens of thousands protest Covid rules in Belgium https://www.malaymail.com/news/world/2022/01/24/clashes-as-tens-of-thousands-protest-covid-rules-in-belgium/2037074" in Malay Mail, 24 January 2022.

Miguel Ángel Alba Díaz photo

“We stand in millions against violence, we firmly believe that we cannot let a handful of individuals steal our peace. We cannot allow them to steal our streets and take our city hostage.”

Miguel Ángel Alba Díaz (1951) Mexican Roman Catholic bishop

Source: Bishop Alba: "We cannot allow criminals steal our streets, steal our peace" http://fides.org/en/news/36886-AMERICA_MEXICO_Bishop_Alba_We_cannot_allow_criminals_steal_our_streets_steal_our_peace (3 December 2014)

Miguel Ángel Alba Díaz photo

“Work for the construction of a more just society, where there are job opportunities for all and fair wages, to avoid the temptation to get easy money. You have to raise your voice: we must not get used to living in a climate of violence, this leads to indifference.”

Miguel Ángel Alba Díaz (1951) Mexican Roman Catholic bishop

Source: Corrupt policemen and climate of mistrust, the Bishop of La Paz denounces the silence of the authorities http://fides.org/en/news/36508-AMERICA_MEXICO_Corrupt_policemen_and_climate_of_mistrust_the_Bishop_of_La_Paz_denounces_the_silence_of_the_authorities (9 October 2014)

Gérard Larcher photo

“Violence and intimidation against our elected representatives are a red line in our democracy.”

Gérard Larcher (1949) President of the Senate (France)

Source: Gérard Larcher (2022) cited in: " 'Unacceptable': France's Macron denounces latest MP assault in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon https://www.euronews.com/2022/01/10/unacceptable-france-s-macron-denounces-latest-mp-assault-in-saint-pierre-et-miquelon" in Science Alert, 10 January 2022.

Gilbert Murray photo
Baltasar Gracián photo
Rollo May photo
Marjorie Taylor Greene photo

“I only believe in peaceful demonstration. I do not support violence
We saw a tremendous amount of voter fraud,”

Marjorie Taylor Greene (1974) American politician and businesswoman from the state of Georgia

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene testifies she doesn't remember her actions leading up to January 6 https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/22/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-disqualification/index.html (Fri April 22, 2022)

“The Church works for the proclamation and the complaint, in order to live in peace. This task begins in the family, which is the first school, and where there should be no violence. We must be agents of life, respectful of people, diversity and the environment.”

Héctor Epalza Quintero (1940–2021) priest

The Bishop of Buenaventura: "Solving the problem of violence with social investment" http://www.fides.org/en/news/33074-AMERICA_COLOMBIA_The_Bishop_of_Buenaventura_Solving_the_problem_of_violence_with_social_investment (17 January 2013)