Kurt Vonnegut Quotes

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

Passive resistance is the resistance which does not resist.

Dissociate yourselves from the satanic administration, and you will bring it to its knees. You will not have to lift a finger, let alone a stick or stone.

A boycott is the most peaceful and passive kind of protest there is and can be. We do not say we hate you or even say that you are wrong. We just say that we don’t want to ride your bus.

Remember: Resist do not comply.

I will not dance to your war drum!

The only true resistance to this Government... [is] to cease to co-operate with it.

Nonviolent non-co-operators can only succeed when they have succeeded in attaining control over the hooligans of India.

I shall order the men to disregard your order, to stand fast. I shall then walk to the largest window in the plant, open it, divest myself of my outer reinments, remove my shirt and bare my bosom. Then when you order your troops to fire, mine will be the first breast those bullets will strike!

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

The only weapon that we have in our hands this evening is the weapon of protest. That's all.

Non-co-operation means nothing less than training in self-sacrifice.

I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion, though I will still make use and get advantage of her as I can, as is usual in such cases.

The trouble is that nonviolence is so often defined as refusal to fight, and that is the American definition of cowardice. In fact, marching unarmed against the guns and dogs of the police requires more courage than does aggression. The perverted idea of manhood coming from the barrel of a gun is what keeps people from understanding nonviolence.

Protest is when I say I don't like this. Resistance is when I put an end to what I don't like. Protest is when I say I refuse to go along with this anymore. Resistance is when I make sure everybody else stops going along too.

I believe in civil disobedience among other forms of resistance in times when it's called for.

I do not fight with the world but the world fights with me.

There is an alternative to war. It's staying in bed and growing your hair.

Disobedience to be civil has to be open and nonviolent.

Total nonviolent non-cooperation has no place in popular Raj, whatever its level may be.

There is nothing but nonviolence to fall back upon for retaining our freedom, even as we had to do for gaining it.

Civil disobedience is the core of American defiance against kings and emperors.

For satyagraha and its offshoots, non-co-operation and civil resistance, are nothing but new names for the law of suffering.

Nonviolent action, the Negro saw, was the way to supplement, not replace, the progress of change. It was the way to divest himself of passivity without arraying himself in vindictive force.

Time and time again we forget all too easily that nonviolent action embraces a wide and imaginative range of behavior which can always be stepped up.