Bayard Rustin Quotes

That was luck: I should not then have been a conscientious objector; but I am quite sure that the abominations of war would have made me one, as soon as I got to the front.

As a woman I can't go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else.

And on the war, I think my numbers would be a lot higher if I were out there beating the drum for this war. In fact, I don't think it, I know it. But I can't be for the war.

I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.

I do hereby pledge myself never to enlist or enter into any army or navy, or to yield my voluntary support or sanction to the preparation for or prosecution of any war, by whomsoever or for whatsoever proposed, declared, or waged.

There has never been a time in my life when I felt that I could take a gun and shoot down a fellow-being. In this respect I am a Quaker.

What if when they called a war, no one went?

It was difficult being a conscientious objector in the 1940's, but I felt I had to stick to my guns.

I had hoped to go to law school, but the war started, and because of the strong feeling that I did not want to kill anybody, I joined the Merchant Marine when I graduated from Berkeley.

I can't find a reason to be for this war. I've looked, and I can't, so I'm not.

We must permit the youth of the land who would bear arms to decide whether or not there should be war.

People didn't have the political guts to stand up against an American war.

I come from a family of pacifists, so it's not like I was going to join the war. Sweden is not like the States or England where you might get sent to Afghanistan next month.

I was the guy who was constantly speaking out against the Vietnam War. I have no regrets about that.

I had a very strong feeling about the Vietnam War, and I had a strong feeling about participating in it. The military draft was in place, I was summoned for a physical exam, and I was either going to be classified as fit for military service or make my objection to it. So I made my objection to it.

My father, who had lost a brother, fighting on the Austrian side in World War I, was a committed pacifist.

I find war detestable but those who praise it without participating in it even more so.

I'm not going to say I was opposed to the Vietnam War. I'm going to say I'm opposed to war. But I'm also opposed to protests that deny other people their rights.

If it is right to honor those who served in the cause of war, then it is equally right to honor those who served the cause of resistance to war.

I am against war, and because I am against war I went to war to fight against war.

War is the mass murder of workers. When workers refuse to obey the calls of their governments, there will be no more war.

War is murder ., The word “murderer” should be embroidered in red letters across the breast of every soldier. I will devote my life to fight this spirit of militarism.

I was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War.

The argument that resistance to the war should remain strictly nonviolent seems to me overwhelming.