Quotes for Peace

compiled by Stan Penner

It is said that the pen is mightier than the sword. And, somehow, even with all the problems we have on this planet of ours, I still believe that. It is my hope and prayer that the writings below can be of some help in stopping wars and keeping wars from starting in the first place.

"There never was a good war, or a bad peace." Benjamin Franklin

"War is the only game in which both sides lose." Walter Scott

"War is the blackest villainy of which human nature is capable." Erasmus

"If you had seen one day of war, you would pray to God that you would never see another." The Duke of Wellington

"An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind." Ghandi

"If you have to resort to force, you have already lost." Tokugawa, Japanese Shogun

"... war is not an answer to human conflict any more than cannibalism is to human hunger." Bruce Kent

"Does the commandment 'Thou Shalt Not Kill' mean nothing to us? Are we to interpret it as meaning 'Thou shalt not kill except on the grand scale,' or 'Thou shalt not kill except when the national leaders say to do so'?" Linus Pauling

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who are hungry and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed." Dwight D. Eisenhower

"There never was a time when, in my opinion, some way could not be found to prevent the drawing of the sword." General Grant

"The more I study the history of the world the more I am convinced of the inability of brute force to create anything durable." Napoleon

"I have known war as few men now living know it. Its very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes." General Douglas MacArthur

"Wars can be prevented just as surely as they can be provoked, and we who fail to prevent them must share in the guilt for the dead." General Omar Bradley

"Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind." President John F. Kennedy

"More than guided missiles, all the world needs guided men." Helen Steiner Rice

"Old soldiers never die, but ninety-nine soldiers in a hundred are pitiably young, and they die in their millions, without beginning to guess why it is that life asks that of them." John Keegen

"Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die." Herbert Hoover

"You can't say that civilizations don't advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a different way." Will Rogers

"I'm sick and tired of old men dreaming up wars in which young men do the dying." George McGovern

"War is not only the denial of Christianity, but of all the most sacred things of life." Major General John O'Ryan.

"War exhibits principally two characteristics that mark it as essentially devilish, namely murder and deception." Phillip Mauro

"Shall Christians assist the prince of hell, who was a murderer from the beginning, by telling the world of the benefits or the need of war?" John Wesley

"The Americans need to start treating the Iraqis like people. And the Iraqis have to find a way of resistance that doesn't lead to reprisals." Dave Pankratz, Mennonite Central Committee aid worker back from Iraq

"...confessing the other person's sins leads to war, while confessing one's own, leads to peace." Samuel M. Shoemaker

"But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Jesus

"Thou shalt not kill." God

Stan Penner resides in Manitoba, Canada