Murray Bookchin Quotes

Read about some squirrelly guy who claims that he just don't believe in fighting, and I wonder how long the rest of us can count on being free.

Through Gandhi and my own life experience, I have learned about nonviolence. I believe that human life is a very special gift from God, and that no one has a right to take that away in any cause, however just. I am convinced that nonviolence is more powerful than violence.

I have been true to the principles of nonviolence, developing a stronger and stronger aversion to the ideologies of both the far right and the far left and a deeper sense of rage and sorrow over the suffering they continue to produce all over the world.

Refraining from violence is not a sign of weakness in one's faith but a sign that one's faith is unshakeable

Pacifists should stress more and more that it is the rule of law for which they are fighting.

I do not like violence, but ours is a violent time, and there are some men who understand nothing else.

I can think about what [Mahatma] Gandhi said or [Martin Luther] King said about violence begetting violence, and still be true to my job by asking myself the question whenever we're confronted with a situation where some may be arguing for military action: Will this actually result in America being safer, or the most lives being saved?

It is my conviction that there is no way to peace - peace is the way.

Nonviolence becomes meaningless if violence is permitted for self-defence.

Until we have created a romance of peace that would equal that of war, violence will not disappear from people's lives.

Let no man posture as an advocate of peace if he proposes or supports any social system that initiates the use of force against individual men, in any form.

The power of unarmed nonviolence is any day far superior to that of armed force.

If one's cause is supported by sound reasoning, there is no point in using violence. It is those who have no motive other than selfish desire and who cannot achieve their goal through logical reasoning who rely on force.

What does it mean when a person is such a pacifist that they get shot? I can never understand that.

I am peaceful but I am not a pacifist in the philosophical sense.

Every government on earth is the personification of violence and force, and yet the doctine of non-resistance is as old as human thought - even more than this, the instinct is as old as life upon the earth.

Non-violence has suffered its biggest defeat in the hands of people who most want to talk about it.

I have a great admiration for pacifism, but I'm not a pacifist, mainly because I would defend myself if I were attacked.

Somebody must have sense enough to meet hate with love. Somebody must have sense enough to meet physical force with soul force. If we will but try this way, we will be able to change these conditions and yet at the same time win the hearts and souls of those who have kept these conditions alive a way as old as the insights of Jesus of Nazareth, as modern as the techniques of Mohandas K. Gandhi. There is another way.

We want to get rid of the militarist not simply because he hurts and kills, but because he is an intolerable thick-voiced blockhead who stands hectoring and blustering in our way of achievement.

It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it's nonviolence or nonexistence. That is where we are today.

Nonviolence is the only way. Even if you achieve your goal by violent means there are always side effects, and these can be worse than the problem. Violence is against human nature.

The choice is not between violence and nonviolence but between nonviolence and nonexistence.

On my knees, I beg of you to turn away from the paths of violence and to return to the path of peace. Those who resort to violence always claim that only violence brings about change. You must know there is a political, peaceful way to justice.

I consider violence an uneconomical way of attaining an end. There are always better substitutes, though they may sometimes be a little less direct.