Jose Mujica Quotes

Why is it that countries which we call strong are so powerful in creating wars but are so weak in bringing peace? Why is it that giving guns is so easy but giving books is so hard?

Many powerful people don't want peace, because they live off war.

I was a military man for 27 years. I fought so long as there was no chance for peace. I believe that there is now a chance for peace, a great chance. We must take advantage of it for the sake of those standing here, and for those who are not here - and they are many.

In case of war, a treaty would have to be made at the end of the war.

War is failure of diplomacy.

First of all, war is a very, very difficult thing to deal with, even on the good days.

Negotiations in pain and frustration for 5 years is better than bullets for 5 minutes.

All of the promises of politicians, generals, madmen, and crusaders that war can create peace have yet to be borne out.

I am a man of peace. I believe in peace. But I do not want peace at any price.

Even strong as they are today, rich countries should have no illusion: nobody is safe in aworld of injustices.War will never bring security.War can only generate monsters: bitterness, intolerance, fundamentalism, and the damaging denial of current hegemonies.The poor must be given reasons to live, not to kill or die.

I regard almost all quarrels of princes on the same footing, and I see nothing that marks man's unreason so positively as war. Indeed, what folly to kill one another for interests often imaginary, and always for the pleasure of persons who do not think themselves even obliged to those who sacrifice themselves for them!

There come times when we have to fight for peace.

The sad truth is that you can have peace processes all you like, but if one side is committed to war, then it's war.

When we seek reconciliation with our enemies, it is commonly out of a desire to better our own condition, a being harassed and tired out with a state of war, and a fear of some ill accident which we are willing to prevent.

There can be no peace if the occupation continues.

You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace.

I said in my heart that, rather than have war, I would give up my country.

Mankind will never win lasting peace so long as men use their full resources only in tasks of war. While we are yet at peace, let us mobilize the potentialities, particularly the moral and spiritual potentialities, which we usually reserve for war.

We want peace, but not at any price.

There was never a good war, or a bad peace.

I beg Osama to stop warring. He is a Muslim, and Islam means peace. Nobody wins in a war... I wish I were tapped in the problem about Iraq. I knew Saddam enough that I could have talked him into surrendering. But it's too late.

In remembering the appalling suffering of war on both sides, we recognise how precious is the peace we have built in Europe since 1945.

I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices today than any of you to secure peace.

You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.

Let's see if we can't get this war behind us now. Certainly, the man in the street, the common person there, wants to have this war behind him. I think a lot of the soldiers are very war-weary too.