Thomas Carlyle Quotes

Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

One is called to live nonviolently, even if the change one works for seems impossible. It may or may not be possible to turn the US around through nonviolent revolution. But one thing favors such an attempt: the total inability of violence to change anything for the better

We cannot withdraw our cards from the game. Were we as silent and mute as stones, our very passivity would be an act.

As muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone, it could be argued that those who sit quietly and do nothing are making one of the best possible contributions to a world in turmoil.

Passive resistance is the resistance which does not resist.

Civil disobedience has almost always been about expression. Generally, it's nonviolent, as defined by Henry David Thoreau, Gandhi, and King.

Nonviolence is an intensely active force when properly understood and used.

A little of true nonviolence acts in a silent, subtle, unseen way and leavens the whole society.

Violence can only be effectively met by nonviolence. This is an old established truth.

With God as witness, I want to proclaim this truth, that the way of violence cannot bring Swaraj, it can only lead to disaster.

Our peaceful non-co-operation must be constructive, non-destructive. Poison should not emerge from the throes of love.

I knew A.J. Muste very well. I tried for a while to be like he was, and that is a total pacifist. But then Margot [my wife] hit me hard in the stomach one day to prove to me that I wasn't as perfect a pacifist as I thought I was.

There is a more excellent way, of love and nonviolent protest.

...people think non-violence is really weak and non-militant. These are misconceptions that people have because they don't understand what non-violence means. Non-violence takes more guts, if I can put it bluntly, than violence. Most violent acts are accomplished by getting the opponent off guard, and it doesn't take that much character, I think, if one wants to do it.

Nonviolence is a method that transforms, first of all, the individual once you understand it and embrace it. It begins with you and, if you can, about transforming individuals so that they love unconditionally.

If civil disobedience is the way to go about change, than I think a lot of people will be going to San Francisco

We have learned that change cannot come through war. War is not a feasible tool to use in fighting against the oppression we face. War has caused more problems. We cannot embrace that path.

Nonviolence is one of those immutable principles that we cannot and must not deviate from.

Nonviolence to be worth anything has to work in the face of hostile forces.

For me nonviolence is a creed. I must act up to it, whether I am alone or have companions.

Disobedience to be civil has to be open and nonviolent.

Nonviolence is a plant of slow growth, it grows imperceptibly but surely.

Nonviolent non-co-operation is the only alternative to anarchy and worse.

The real test of nonviolence lies in its being brought in contact with those who have contempt for it.

I believe that Gandhi’s views were the most enlightened of all the political men in our time. We should strive to do things in his spirit: not to use violence in fighting for our cause, but by non-participation in anything you believe is evil.