Lynn Nottage Quotes

Wars, however frequent and destructive they may be, have never been able to kill entirely the intellectual and moral sense which raises man above the beast.

War is a curtain of dense black fabric across all the hopes and kindliness of mankind. Yet always it has let through some gleams of light, and not--I am not dreaming--it grows threadbare, and here and there and at a thousand points the light is breaking through.

Mankind has grown strong in eternal struggles and it will only perish through eternal peace.

The main force used in the evolving world of humanity has hitherto been applied in the form of war.

I mean, I can look back with great pleasure on what has happened in Sudan, and our commitment to people who are persecuted in that kind of way.

War is a beastly business, it is true, but one proof we are human is our ability to learn, even from it, how better to exist.

War is the greatest failure of mankind.

My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth.

Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.

For me, it's not an option to despair. The question is: what can we do to make someone's life better? Take the unimaginable strides made in places like Bosnia, where I cut my teeth, and Rwanda. Their stories aren't perfect, but I wouldn't have dreamt they could happen in a million years.

Even in war, everyone deserves to be treated humanely.

What really matters is that we should all of us realize that we are guilty of inhumanity. The horror of this realization should shakes us out of our lethargy so that we can direct our hopes and our intentions to the coming of an era in which war will have no place.

Men strive for peace, but it is their enemies that give them strength, and I think if man no longer had enemies, he would have to invent them, for his strength only grows from struggle.

Men since the beginning of time have sought peace.

Peace - the word evokes the simplest and most cherished dream of humanity. Peace is, and has always been, the ultimate human aspiration. And yet our history overwhelmingly shows that while we speak incessantly of peace, our actions tell a very different story.

Peace is a virtual, mute, sustained victory of potential powers against probable greeds

For to me every sort of peace with the citizens seemed to be of more service than civil war.

The War is not over (and the one that is, or the part of it, has been largely lost). But it is of course wrong to fall into such a mood, for Wars are always lost, and War always goes on; and it is no good growing faint.

I wouldn't say that I have overcome opposition so much as I have tried to understand it. The lash of judgment carries a wounding sting, and there's a deeply instinctual tendency to want to respond in kind. I am not proud that my thoughts were blackened with vile opinions about the nature of those who were attacking me.

Peace is the whole truth that wishes to enrapture humanity. War is the whole falsehood that wants to capture humanity. Peace begins in the soul and ends in the heart. War begins in the mind and ends in the body.

It was hard to reconcile the drumbeats and lifted voices in the night with my memories of flames and the screams of dying men. How could humanity range so effortlessly from the sublime to the savage and back again?

Why is war such an easy option? Why does peace remain such an elusive goal? We know statesmen skilled at waging war, but where are those dedicated enough to humanity to find a way to avoid war

If everyone could see the image of God in his neighbor, do you think we should still need tanks and generals?

When you're in the arena...you just remember who the enemy is" - Haymitch